LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE. 

No registration of title of this book 
as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
tion has been found. 

DEC 10 1909 

Forwarded to Order Division 



(Date) 



(Apr. 5, 1901—5,000.) 




Glass — _ 



Book-- 




FOR 



ttty? (Cur? flf ItBHtH? 



BY 



Sr. Hinia Sitrfteiii l[a22arfc 






SEATTLE, U. S. A. 
HARRISON PUBLISHING CO. 

1908 



.,■;' 



V V 



Copyright, 1908, by 
LINDA BURFIELD HAZZARD 



- 



DEC 10 S9G9 






This Volume 

is dedicated to the Memory of 
my Father, 

^Montgomery Burfield 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

Introduction .._.. 11 

Chapter I — Food and Disease 21 

Chapter II — Rest and Elimination 30 

Chapter III — Symptoms * 42 

Chapter IV — Duration of Fast 55 

Chapter V — Death in the Fast 63 

Chapter VI — Mental and Bodily Reaction 69 

Chapter VII — Sexual Disease and the Fast 79 

Chapter VIII — The Enema 85 

Chapter IX — Children in the Fast 92 

Chapter X—Diet ...101 

Chapter XI — Bathing and Fresh Air 114 

Chapter XII — Medical Dogmas .122 

Chapter XIII — Cases Treated by Fasting 129 

Chapter XIV— Criticism . 167 

Chapter XV — Conclusion 176 



KppttxU ta (Brabtng; Sjimg^r ta Seaire. 
GIrabtng ta it?b*r aattafiri*; but Iteatre ta 
rHtrfirti fallen Want ta auppltrti. 

Eating imtfj0iti S?ttttg?r, nr patttertng 
tu Appetite at ttf* txpmB? of Stg^attott. 
utak*a !ta*aae tnrfritabb. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In presenting the following pages, I 
acknowledge my debt to Dr. E. H. Dewey, 
now deceased, to whose encouragement, 
example, and guidance I owe my early 
training and my later progress in the 
methods set forth. I believe that Dr. 
Dewey discovered many things in connec- 
tion with the natural treatment of disease 
the true value of which perhaps he did 
not appreciate. I believe, too, that in the 
twelve years that have gone since I began 
my own work along these lines I have as- 
certained and proved many things that he 
failed to put to the test. 

Truth is the result of the study of 
Nature by her own light, and we must 
seek for knowledge where we may expect 
to find it. It is difficult for the rays of 
truth to penetrate a mind filled with the 
opinions of others; and it is well to re- 
member that knowledge is obtained not al- 
ii 



12 FASTING FOR THE 

ways by following prescribed paths or by 
accepting the dicta of recognized au- 
thorities. 

Self-conceit, credulity, and skepticism 
are said to go hand in hand; and candor 
compels the remark that these graces are 
not confined to the ignorant or to the 
uneducated. If a man be a skeptic, he 
can but mean that certain things do not 
exist relatively to his own knowledge; 
but no one can deny the possibility of the 
existence of that which he cannot har- 
monize with his accepted opinions, or of 
which he is ignorant. Should he do so, 
the conclusion holds that he is just as 
credulous as the man who believes without 
discrimination. 

When an extraordinary fact, a fact be- 
yond its own experience, is presented to a 
mind vicariously moulded, more often 
than not it is rejected as impossible or as 
the result of disordered physical condi- 
tions. In these circumstances even the 
testimony of the senses is repudiated, and 
that of credible witnesses is frequently 
imputed to base motives. 

Popular belief and medical teaching 



CURE OF DISEASE 13 

lead to the conclusion that abstinence from 
food for ten or twelve days will result in 
starvation and death. This is easily re- 
futed. On my lists are considerably over 
one thousand instances of continuous fasts 
whose limits extend from ten to seventy- 
five days. While I esteem and consider 
but one cause and but one disease, the 
symptoms expressed in this long roll cover 
virtually the whole of medical pathology; 
and in twelve years only eleven patients 
have died while under my care. Each of 
these deaths has proved an occasion for 
persecution, malignment, prosecution, and 
injury; and from each and every case 
both I and the method have emerged 
triumphant, the autopsy showing organic 
disease, and that death was inevitable. 

No one knows better than the thinking 
members of the medical profession that 
the time is at hand when prevention rather 
than cure will be the key-note of therapeu- 
tics. Organization on labor-union stand- 
ards heralds the fact that medicine is 
fighting for its life, while dissensions 
within its ranks are evidenced daily. 
Nature, through Nature's governing law, 



14 FASTING FOR THE 

restores and rebuilds to limits unknown 
to empirics, and dosage does not and 
cannot assist her, but, on the contrary, is 
a detriment. Boasted antiseptics are only 
tissue destroyers, and drugs are poisons 
more or less active in effect. Without 
food, blood is purified and sores are 
healed; without food, the processes of 
the body are carried on for a time with 
ease, while relaxation, rest, and recupera- 
tion occur. Even the phenomena of gesta- 
tion progress perfectly during the fast, 
and I am able to present one instance of a 
woman who while pregnant underwent a 
fast of six weeks, and gave birth at term 
to a healthy nine-pound boy. 

The wisdom of medicine does not consist 
in a knowledge of Nature, but in that 
which accepted authorities have imagined 
Nature to be. The true physician has a 
knowledge of his own, not a system bor- 
rowed from books or from man's dead 
body. What others may teach should be 
simply an aid in the search, but he who 
finds a part of the human fabric diseased 
should look for the cause which produced 
the disturbance, and not treat merely ex- 



CURE OF DISEASE 15 

ternal effects. True perception of cause 
and effect is the mother of the physician, 
and in this understanding rests the indi- 
cation of the remedy. In other words, not 
man but Nature is the doctor, and Nature 
requires no complicated prescriptions in 
her treatment. 

The aim of later medical investigation 
has tended more towards the classification 
of disease symptoms and of germ forms. 
Hence we find the physician delaying 
treatment even for days until symptoms 
develop to the point where accurate diag- 
nosis may be made. I do not think that 
normal balanced opinion will differ from 
me when I advance the contention that the 
first things to be considered in the sick- 
room are the possibility of recovery and 
the necessity of quick action along hygienic 
and curative lines. In the philosophy of 
fasting for cure the cause is at once at- 
tacked, and disease is aided in its at- 
tempt to restore disturbed physical bal- 
ance by having its avenues of elimination 
broadened and increased. 

Normal taste and normal hunger are 
the results of natural methods, and it 



16 FASTING FOE THE 

has proved a source of great satisfaction to 
me to find that the fast in all cases acts 
instantaneously upon perverted and 
abused tastes and appetites, and leaves 
the patient with no desire whatever for 
stimulation. Condiments, tobacco, alco- 
hol, and drugs are all proscribed and for- 
bidden. 

That Biblical reference is made to fast- 
ing as part of religious form, and that 
the Christ advised casting out of devils 
(or disease) by fasting and prayer, fur- 
nish no argument for classing the treat- 
ment with cults religious or ethical. It- 
is my earnest hope that the exposition 
embodied in the text will be found in 
consonance with the sanities of culture 
rather than with the incoherences of the 
average cult. 

Criticism and opposition are always met 
in applying the principles that I advance, 
but I evince no egotism when I say that 
these are, in all cases, the results of ignor- 
ance. Before his death in 1904 even Dr. 
Dewey's long-suffering in the cause of hu- 
manity had reached its limit; and in a 
personal letter he says that, due to the 



CURE OF DISEASE 17 

necessary teaching and preaching of com- 
mon sense in hygiene, and due also to al- 
most ' ' infernal ' ' opposition, he had become 
most weary of fasting cases. 

Professional dicta assert that starvation 
and death will ensue if food be withheld 
for more than two weeks ; that permanent 
injury will result from the continued use 
of the enema ; that acute pain may be re- 
lieved only by anesthesia or narcotism; 
that the germ is the cause of disease ; that 
the drug acts upon the organ; and the 
list might be extended. Individually and 
by schools, each of these opinions is dog- 
matically denied, and its opposite declared 
to be the truth. No such disagreement 
can occur among those who reason with 
Nature from cause to effect, for the law of 
compensation is inexorable in its applica- 
tion. 

Disease is the reverse of health, but it 
is not an enemy to life. This again is one 
of the differences of professional lore, and 
the text sufficiently exposes the fallacy. 
I have, however, attempted no extended 
discussion of this fact, nor of the theory 
conveyed in the statement that food is 



18 FASTING FOR THE 

not the sole source of strength or of 
bodily heat; but I leave these as material 
for thought with detail displayed. My 
own opinion is thoroughly formed, and I 
hope later to express it in a manner more 
elaborate and more definite. 

The beginnings of disease lie at the 
threshold of the process of digestion. 
Its seeds are sown in the mouth, while 
stomach and intestines, injured by food 
improperly prepared, and worked beyond 
limit by over-supply, continue and con- 
serve their propagation. Impaired diges- 
tion and impure blood are cause and 
effect. 

To anticipate the text, fasting is but a 
means to an end, a cleansing and resting 
process that prepares the body for right 
living in future time. The cure is not 
accomplished until the individual himself, 
co-operating with Nature, completes what 
the fast began. 

The facts presented and the arguments 
made herein are intended primarily for 
lay intelligence; but, since positive proof 
is offered and the results are easily veri- 
fied, I trust that investigation will follow 



CURE OF DISEASE 19 

on the part of broad-minded professional 
men. I can claim no originality in theory, 
either philosophical or physiological, but 
I do advance my right to thoroughness of 
detail in investigation and to confidence in 
practical demonstration. 

Seattle, Washington. 



Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die, 

By fire, flood, famine; by intemperance more 

In meats and drinks, which on the Earth shall bring 

Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew 

Before thee shall appear, that thou mayst k^ow 

What misery the inabstinence of Eve 

Shall bring on men. 

If thou well observe 
The rule of "Not too much" by temperance taught 
In what thou cat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence 
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight, 
Till many years over thy head return; 
So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop 
Into thy mothers lap, or be with ease 
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature. 

— John Milton, "Paradise Lost." 



JfatBitttg for i\\t (Eur* of Stfl?aar 



CHAPTEE I. 

Food and Disease. 

In human affairs tradition, inheritance, 
and education often combine to foster and 
preserve false and misleading doctrine, 
and in no instance is this fact so well 
illustrated as in that of the method in 
vogue for the treatment of bodily ills. 
Disease in the popular mind is dreaded, 
and, with certain symptoms, is fled from 
in panic and in terror. In existing cir- 
cumstances this is to be expected, but the 
day is in sight when the ailments of the 
human fabric will be looked at rightly as 
but rational processes of cure. Thus re- 
garded, disease is not a foe to life, but is 
Nature's plan of restoring a sick body to 
health. That the present general concep- 
tion and treatment of disease are wrong, 

and that perfect health is within reach of 

21 



22 FASTING FOR THE 

all not organically imperfect, are truths 
that the text will fully demonstrate. 

A healthy organism is one that is in 
position to liberate energy and vitality 
when needed in the activities. To pre- 
serve the body in health man eats; and, 
without sufficient nourishment properly 
supplied, the bodily machinery functions 
inefficiently, and disease results. This is 
Nature's law. But eating has long pan- 
dered to the sense of taste, and appetite 
is cultivated at the expense of digestion; 
and, in consequence, food is consumed in 
excess of that required to make good the 
losses incurred through physical and men- 
tal activity, while much unnecessary labor 
is entailed in the disposal of the refuse. 

Around the appetites and desires of 
man false standards have arisen, and cen- 
turies of catering to taste lie behind exist- 
ing carelessnes in feeding the body. Over- 
eating is a well-nigh universal vice, while 
the laws of nutrition in most individual 
cases are far from being fulfilled. This 
fault, apparent though it be, and weaken- 
ing and distressing in its effect as it is, 
calls out for correction as does no other 



CURE OF DISEASE 23 

in the long list of outrages against Nature. 
From Cornaro to Fletcher seekers after 
the remedy have advanced their beliefs to 
meet the hope that a panacea exists. No 
one doubts that relief is to be found, for 
Nature deals but in cause and effect, and 
the natural tendency in all life is towards 
perfect health. 

The action of food in the body is purely 
mechanical. Its purpose is to replace 
broken-down tissue, and to supply and re- 
pair the working parts of the machine. 
To do this it must be prepared for conver- 
sion into cell structure, and this process is 
sufficiently familiar to preclude descrip- 
tion here. Digestion of food is an effort 
at once nervous and muscular, which will 
be followed by troubles innumerable if 
continued beyond the real needs of the 
system. For, when the body is overfed, 
energy that might well be utilized for 
other and more important purposes is em- 
ployed in taking care of excess material, 
of which part is absorbed and deposited 
as fat, and part remains in the intestines 
to ferment and putrefy. 

Only that portion of digested food that 



24 FASTING FOR THE 

is assimilated can be used by the blood to 
rebuild wasted tissue; the remainder is 
refuse, and in cases of overfeeding takes 
its place, as described, with undigested 
matter to ferment and decompose in the 
intestines. Absorption of toxins thus 
formed occurs Rapidly and continuously, as 
is shown by resultant disease symptoms 
expressed in colds, headaches, or fevers. 

An examination of human fecal matter 
reveals certain conditions that are con- 
clusive as to overfeeding. Undigested food 
is found in the majority of cases ; digested 
food products and old feces are present; 
and, dependent on diet and on mastica- 
tion, the odor is more or less offensive. 
Normal refuse from properly masticated 
natural food is absolutely without odor. 
When the examination is continued daily 
for a time assurance is gained that all 
food is not digested; that the bowels are 
not completely cleared of waste by the 
regular one stool per diem ; that ferment- 
ing rotting material defiles the human in- 
terior to an extent scarcely to be accepted 
as a fact until proved; and that an unnec- 
essary tax is placed upon the digestive 



CURE OF DISEASE 25 

tract and upon the eliminating organs by 
reason of food excess. 

A daily movement of the bowels is no 
indication of a clean and healthy canal. 
Sufferers from digestive troubles have 
often asserted to the author that the 
bowels were regular in action, and that 
evacuations were copious; yet, upon ad- 
ministration of the enema, quantities of 
old hardened fecal matter appeared; and 
this not once only, but for days in suc- 
cession. Post-mortem dissection of the 
colon furnishes additional evidence of a 
filthy internal condition, for masses of 
waste are always discovered clinging to 
the walls of the organ, material beyond its 
power to eliminate, and the direct result 
of overtax from overfeeding. A move- 
ment of the bowels in these circumstances 
takes place only through the center of the 
clogged tube. These are the facts con- 
fronted in the majority of instances, and 
indignant denial is usually forthcoming 
when the subject is informed of the state 
of affairs, but proof is easily accom- 
plished. 

Despite prevalent belief, disease never 



26 FASTING FOR THE 

strikes suddenly, but is the consequence 
of long-continued violations of natural 
law. " Every disease," says Dr. E. H. 
Dewey, "is an inherited possibility, which 
every violation of the laws of life tends 
to develop. It is never simply an attack 
on a well person, but rather a summing-up 
of the more or less lifelong violations of 
health laws." As a result of these trans- 
gressions, we are admonished by a loss 
of digestive power ; something goes wrong 
with the physical scales, and they no 
longer balance. And, to quote from Dewey 
again: "Every morsel of food that gets 
into a human stomach beyond the power 
to digest and assimilate is always the di- 
rect exciting cause of disease." 

The outward evidences of disease, its 
symptoms, vary with temperament, heredi- 
tary tendencies, surroundings, and phys- 
ical condition. No two human beings 
ever express the same signs of disease 
even in like environment; and just why 
one individual develops certain symptoms 
while another similarly situated exhibits 
forms diametrically opposite, probably 
finds explanation in the domain of the 
phenomena of heredity. 



CURE OF DISEASE 27 

It should not require an exhaustive ar- 
gument to establish the fact that disease 
has its origin in impaired digestion. 
Upon this fundamental truth and its de- 
velopment, the treatment herein described 
depends in its entirety; and long expe- 
rience at varied hands has placed an axio- 
matic value on the statement that, what- 
ever the manifestation, the only disease is 
impure blood, and its sole cause impaired 
digestion. 

A review of the physiology of the pas- 
sage of the blood through the body evi- 
dences that perfect health is synonymous 
with perfect circulation. What the blood 
deposits in one state it removes in an- 
other; and, given a pure blood supply, 
broken-down tissue is at once eliminated 
and replaced. The products of food are 
delivered to the tissue by the blood, and 
this fluid picks up and carries away the 
refuse. A physical equilibrium is the re- 
sult, and a normal healthy body rejoices 
its owner. 

Food prepared in successive stages of 
digestion for conversion into tissue pabu- 
lum first develops into chyle, a milky 



28 FASTING FOR THE 

liquid that is absorbed from the intestines 
and is conducted through liver, heart, and 
lungs to the arterial system. Elements 
other than food products enter into cell 
structure, but the great supply arises from 
food ingested and digested; and blood 
quality depends in largest degree upon 
food properly converted and absorbed. 
Any disturbance of any part of the pro- 
cesses of digestion or of assimilation 
causes an imperfect supply of blood and 
tissue nourishment; the physical equilib- 
rium is overturned, and disease ensues. 

When such disorder occurs, imperfect 
action of one or other of the vital func- 
tions results, the blood becomes encum- 
bered with impurities, and Nature at once 
makes the effort to restore normal balance 
by manifesting disease. The simplest in- 
stance of this condition is a cold in the 
head. Properly speaking, a cold of any 
sort is Nature's attempt to cast out blood 
impurity, and excessive discharge from 
the nasal passages or from the throat is 
a sign that she is applying her cure. 
The object accomplished, the discharge 
ceases. 



CURE OF DISEASE 29 

The law of compensation is amply and 
completely shown in the realm of Nature, 
for each and every violation of her rules 
of order brings condign correction, indi- 
vidual or cumulative. On the other hand, 
the Great Mother holds forth relief, for- 
giveness, and restoration when old paths 
are forsaken and natural roads resumed. 

Overworked Nature has one means of 
recuperation, rest, and rest alone. Grant- 
ing that impaired digestion is the source 
of impure blood or disease, it is reasona- 
ble to assume that abused digestive func- 
tions, properly relieved from labor for a 
time, will recover and return with re- 
newed vigor to their appointed tasks. 
That this conclusion is true in all senses, 
it is the purpose of the following pages 
to establish. 



CHAPTER II. 
Rest and Elimination. 

When a man runs as fast as his legs 
can move, he is able to keep up the pace 
for but a short distance. On account of 
the forced, vigorous, and rapid muscular 
action, poisonous materials are thrown 
into the blood to be carried to all parts 
of the body, to muscles, nerves, and brain. 
Through the nerve cells the heart is af- 
fected, and the muscles of respiration are 
similarly disturbed. Panting, distressed 
efforts of breathing, sidelong tumbling, 
and final semi-consciousness are symp- 
toms of resulting self-intoxication that 
may end in death. The sole method of 
restoration lies in complete and absolute 
rest. 

Body tissue is continually undergoing 
change of material. The substances that 
form it are being constantly cast off, and 

30 



CURE OF DISEASE 31 

fresh matter is being supplied. The waste 
eliminated is poison; and, without tissue 
rest, this dead and noxious detritus can- 
not be replaced fast enough by new prod- 
ucts. This applies not only to tissue in 
active use, but to all tissue of the body. 

The heart, though making contractions 
at the rate of seventy- two beats the min- 
ute, is able to continue its work through- 
out the life of the individual. Each con- 
traction of this muscle is followed by an 
interval of rest, during which the cells 
recuperate. Push the heart beats to a 
rapid rate, and the danger point is 
reached at which poisonous products are 
not replaced by fresh cells, since the in- 
tervals of rest are not sufficient. The same 
conditions are met in every bodily organ. 

All during life each member of the body 
in the very act of living is producing 
poison within itself. When toxins accu- 
mulate faster than they are eliminated, 
which always occurs unless an interval of 
rest is offered, fatigue is felt, and this is 
only another name for poisonous infec- 
tion. If action and rest are so regulated 
that the cells may give off their waste 



32 PASTING FOR THE 

products at a rate to keep pace with new 
formations, muscle and nerve tissue will 
always be in position to liberate energy 
continuously. 

As outlined in the instances described, 
overworked Nature has but one means of 
recuperation, rest and rest alone. Prac- 
tice has confirmed the logic of the theory, 
and just as muscle, just as brain, supplied 
with intervals of rest, return in vigor to 
their tasks, so abused digestive functions, 
properly relieved from labor for a time, 
recuperate and apply themselves to their 
bodily duties with strength renewed. 

Perhaps it is not at once apparent how 
the digestive organs may be given needed 
rest. The very thought of not eating 
brings with it a breach of long-taught doc- 
trine that frequent daily feeding, sick or 
well, is necessary for the maintenance of 
vitality and strength. Yet just this omis- 
sion is meant when one speaks of resting 
the digestive functions. 

In illness weight is always lost, and de- 
pendent upon the duration of disease it is 
lost in greater or less amount. At this 
time under prevailing methods feeding is 



CURE OF DISEASE 33 

continuous, and if the stomach rebel nutri- 
tious enemata are called into service. The 
question arises, Why, if food is constantly 
supplied, does the body lose in weight? 
It should be clear that the intake is not 
digested, is not assimilated, and, far from 
nourishing the tissues, is an added burden 
to the vitality. 

With slight differences the physiology 
of digestion in mammals is markedly sim- 
ilar. When disease is manifested, ani- 
mals, taught by a power that has been 
educated out of man, abstain from food 
until the physical balance is restored. 
This fact is one that each of us has ob- 
served, but it, perhaps, has not been in- 
telligently applied. That a horse is "off 
his feed" is a common expression of the 
stable, and this alone illustrates the in- 
stinct that impels the animal to fast when 
its physical well-being is disturbed. These 
periods are ordinarily of short duration, 
but cats have been known to prolong ab- 
stention to skeleton condition, and then to 
return rapidly to health with increased 
strength and vigor. 

Omitting such mental states as fear or 



34 FASTING FOR THE 

prolonged worry, and such physical ones 
as severe pain or continued exposure, the 
average man cannot die for want of food 
in at least one hundred days. This fact 
has been proved in medical history in 
many instances, and is verified and cor- 
roborated daily in fasting for the cure 
of disease. The reasons underlying it will 
be brought out later in the text. 

If, then, the body can exist without food 
for a time, and in illness the stomach in- 
stinctively objects to its introduction, it is 
reasonable to conclude that food not de- 
sired is not necessary, and this conclu- 
sion, once adopted, is abundantly justified. 
The results are such that they lead to the 
further conclusion that, in the absence of 
organic imperfections, abstinence from 
food, with other natural health-giving and 
health-preserving accompaniments, is the 
sovereign remedy for all physical ills. 

Abruptly to omit all food sets the sys- 
tem clamoring for its regular supply at 
its regular hours, and the effect is much 
like that experienced by the confirmed 
toper or by the drug victim when his dose 
is perforce denied. Nervous reaction is 



CURE OF DISEASE 35 

quite evident, but there are cases when 
measures as drastic must be employed. 
The ideal way to approach total absti- 
nence is to lower the amount of food 
gradually. Perhaps the easiest and best 
method is found in omitting the morning 
meal for several days or a week; then for 
a few days both morning and noon re- 
pasts ; and finally in dropping the evening 
meal and subsisting for the necessary in- 
terval on fresh air and pure water. 

In the ordinary patient, the omission of 
breakfast occasions slight disturbances, 
such as dizziness, headache, and stomach 
and bowel pains. But these pass, and 
there are usually no unpleasant symp- 
toms when the other meals are dropped 
in succession. In the no-breakfast period 
elimination of digestive toxins begins to 
gain over their formation; and, as the 
patient tapers off, the fact that his body 
is undergoing a cleansing process becomes 
most evident from the bowel discharges, 
and from the odor emanating from both 
skin and breath. When he enters the ab- 
solute fast, he is surprised beyond meas- 
ure to discover that the odor becomes, if 



36 FASTING FOR THE 

anything, more offensive, and that the 
evacuations continue, and, to a certain 
limit, increase in quantity and in vileness. 

It is soon apparent from the results that 
years of overworked digestive functions, 
and of consequent imperfect nutrition, 
have loaded the tissues with toxins, and 
that a complete reversal in the nature and 
manner of the food supply is necessary. 
But a fresh foundation must be construct- 
ed, and a change in internal conditions 
must be effected by removing the active 
cause, and by renewing the functions of 
those organs responsible for the safety 
and well-being of the life within. 

When the influx of food is stopped, 
the stomach is naturally emptied, and 
commences its enforced vacation. Its 
whole strength is now applied in recupera- 
tion, in subduing, with the assistance of a 
blood current continually growing in pur- 
ity, any inflammation that may be present 
in its walls, and in allaying congestion in 
veins and in glands. It will from time to 
time be disturbed in its work by its neigh- 
bor, the liver, which is sending quan- 
tities of bile into the alimentary canal. 



CURE OF DISEASE 37 

When this occurs in great frequency, a 
sick stomach evidences the excess. To an 
appreciable degree during a fast the 
stomach diminishes in size ; and, when eat- 
ing is resumed, it is well not to distend the 
organ unduly with liquids or solids. If, 
however, water is drunk in proper quan- 
tities and at proper intervals, while the 
volume decreases, the power of contrac- 
tion and expansion is not at all impaired. 
The involuntary functions of the body 
blindly obey at all times their several laws 
regardless of the material given them to 
handle. As the fast progresses, the blood, 
following its mission, gathers up the 
refuse from broken-down cells, and sup- 
plies for rebuilding purposes what is 
available. This it finds partly in the fat of 
the body and partly in the material still 
in the intestines; but not for long, since, 
in a properly conducted fast, fat gradually 
disappears, and the contents of the bowels 
are promptly removed by enemata. As 
the purifying process continues, the waste 
grows less; the density of the blood is 
much reduced, and with it the labor of the 
heart, which is thus progressively light- 



38 FASTING FOR THE 

ened of its burden. When food is taken 
away, the bowels still proceed to collect 
the refuse deposited within them; the 
kidneys and the liver continue eliminating ; 
and the whole sewerage system combines 
to clear away the impurities delivered to 
it by the blood. 

The liver stands at the portal of the 
circulation like a great watch-dog. It re- 
ceives the digested food absorbed through 
the walls of the intestines, and it sepa- 
rates good from bad. Its products are, 
on the one hand, blood filled with nutri- 
ment, and, on the other, the peculiar secre- 
tion known as bile. The latter it stores in 
the gall-bladder and feeds to the intestines 
as needed in food digestion. When over- 
worked by overfeeding, the liver cannot 
properly perform its function of inspec- 
tion, and more or less of the poison ab- 
sorbed from fermenting waste in the 
bowels is carried into the circulation. Ex- 
cess of bile is manifest, and with it the 
headache, the cold, the bilious attack, all 
warnings that must be heeded lest dire 
results succeed. 

The minute cells of the liver have indi- 



CURE OF DISEASE 39 

vidua! work to perform in separating nu- 
tritive material from waste. These cells 
are delicate little bodies and will not stand 
abuse. All habits having a tendency to 
cause digestive disturbance, — excessive use 
of tobacco or alcohol, eating rapidly, eat- 
ing indigestible food, and overeating, — viti- 
ate the work of this organ. Any clogging 
or interference with its functional duties 
prevents the blood from receiving the 
benefit of inspection, and an impure fluid 
is the result. All parts of the body will 
show distressing symptoms of fatigue and 
exhaustion if the cells of the liver become 
diseased or useless through intemperate 
living and through ignorance of the spe- 
cific duties belonging to each separate or- 
gan of the human fabric; and over-in- 
dulgence in alcohol or overeating will de- 
stroy them in thousands. They are dead, 
and the organ is left with lessened power 
to eliminate poison, while the body re- 
tires, beaten by one of its members. 

Nature is loath to cast out anything as 
worthless, and that function of the liver 
by which waste, segregated from blood 
material, is utilized for further digestive 



40 FASTING FOR THE 

operation in the form of bile, is one of the 
most striking instances of her economy. 
Unless care be taken to furnish a correct 
food supply in correct proportion and 
quantity, this fluid is secreted in amount 
larger than the system demands, and is 
absorbed and reabsorbed, with additions 
from other sources, until congestion re- 
sults, the circulation is vitiated, and the 
bowels are filled with bilious toxins that 
poison and repoison indefinitely. 

In the fast, the warm water enema, 
properly administered and assisted by 
manipulation of the small intestines, re- 
moves the excessive amount of bile se- 
creted at this time, and reabsorption is 
thus prevented. It may be seen that, in 
the absence of food, the liver has but one 
office to perform, to eliminate, to cast out. 
There being no food supply, all secretion 
from this organ is waste and should be re- 
moved promptly from the system. 

The kidneys assist materially in the 
cleansing process, and are not deprived 
of their supplies to the same extent as the 
other functions, for the drinking of water 
in quantity sufficient to insure a constant 



CURE OF DISEASE 41 

irrigation of stomach and upper intes- 
tine is an absolute requirement in fast- 
ing. The juice of the pancreas is also 
discharged as refuse. 



CHAPTER III. 

Symptoms. 

As indicated, the ideal method of ap- 
proaching the fast is to prepare the sys- 
tem by a gradual lessening of the food 
supply. But whether begun in this way 
or without preparation, as is necessary in 
acute disease, the resultant symptoms are, 
in general, alike. Usually the first few 
days are the most troublesome, but this is 
true in the breaking of any habit. Once 
elimination becomes predominant, desire 
for food is supplanted by disgust at 
thought of it, and appetite gives little 
bother until the fast is completed. There 
may be variations in this sign, due more 
or less to the time given to the prelim- 
inaries; and in the author's experience 
are several instances in which appetite or 
a semblance of it was present throughout 
the whole period of abstinence. This, how- 
ever, is not usual. 

42 



CURE OF DISEASE 43 

The tongue at once dons a thick yellow- 
ish-white coat, which it keeps until the im- 
purities within are dispersed; and the 
clearing of its surface is one of the im- 
portant signals that indicate the com- 
pleted fast. Like the tongue, the breath 
becomes loaded with evidences of the in- 
ternal condition, and its odor is most 
offensive for the greater part of the fast- 
ing period. This, too, is an indicator of 
the progress of the cleansing process, and 
it announces the end by becoming odor- 
less. 

It is quite common to observe in dis- 
eased persons unpleasant body odors. 
These are simple manifestations of a foul 
interior that Nature is seeking to relieve 
through the organs of elimination, not the 
least of which is the skin. It is well 
known that most lunatics have a peculiar 
odor so marked that an experienced at- 
tendant can at once distinguish a mental 
pervert. This is true in many disease 
symptoms other than those of the mind, 
each possessing its characteristic body 
odor. Even in the milder forms of ner- 



44 FASTING FOR THE 

vous derangements, such as hysteria and 
the like, the odor of the body becomes 
distinctly changed, and is frequently no- 
ticed by the patients themselves. In the 
fast this effluvium is much more evident 
than is ordinarily the case, and can be de- 
tected at once upon entering a room occu- 
pied by a patient undergoing treatment. 
Elimination from the pores of the skin is 
no greater than that through other chan- 
nels, nor is it less offensive. 

Another sign of progression is found 
in the saliva, which at first is apt to be 
viscous in quality, and is much less abun- 
dant than in ordinary circumstances. In 
fact, as a general thing, the saliva, a di- 
gestive juice, is not secreted in quantity 
during the fast until hunger asserts itself. 
However, the mouth is more or less moist, 
and, in case of nausea, there is abundant 
evidence that the salivary glands are in 
working order; but, as stated, the fluid 
secreted is usually thick and foamy in 
consistency and appearance, and it re- 
sumes its natural condition only when the 
system is completely cleansed, and when 
food is demanded by natural hunger. 



CURE OF DISEASE 45 

There are instances in which acid condi- 
tions are present during the early stages 
of the fast, and saliva in quantities ap- 
pears, but, as the fast progresses, this 
symptom vanishes. 

For some little time in severe cases, 
dizziness on rising suddenly, spots be- 
fore the eyes, and general malaise and 
weakness are present. But these signs 
are not found in every instance, and can- 
not be established as guides. Some there 
are who may abstain from food as long 
as thirty or forty days with no disagree- 
able symptoms save offensive breath and 
loss in weight; and there are others in 
whom all the indications thus far' de- 
scribed are in evidence until the end of 
the fast. 

In what are known as bilious tempera- 
ments, recruited from the ranks of those 
who, by high living, careless feeding, and 
overfeeding, have given the liver work be- 
yond its capability, the experience of the 
fast is often a trying one. The bile stored 
in the congested organ and extracted from 
the circulation is thrown out in quantities, 
and floods the intestines to such extent 



46 FASTING FOR THE 

that, before it can be removed, antiperis- 
talsis takes place, and the stomach finds 
itself used as a depository. This fact is 
announced in the usual way, and nausea 
occurs with vomiting of greenish-yellow 
bile. There is no absolute certainty of the 
appearance of this sign, but it is present 
in greater or less degree in the subjects 
referred to. In one known instance vomit- 
ing of bile took place daily for twenty-six 
days. 

In nervous troubles extremely disagree- 
able symptoms, with the exception of irri- 
tability, are ordinarily absent; and the 
fast progresses without incident to com- 
pletion. But in all fasters the discharges 
from the bowels are very similar, a brown- 
ish fluid shading to black, with lumps of 
old feces more or less abundant. The lat- 
ter are in evidence to the end, and are 
proof positive of the former statement 
that overworked bowels do not fully evacu- 
ate their contents even when regular in 
action. 

With the above facts in mind, and with 
the thought that each individual develops 
his own case and may or may not ex- 



CURE OF DISEASE 47 

hibit one or more of the symptoms de- 
scribed, ordinarily the time after the first 
few days is uneventful. As much water 
as can conveniently be handled must be 
drunk, and each day the warm bath and 
the enema must aid elimination. In the 
event that plain water prove repugnant 
to the taste, as is often the case, a little 
lemon juice may be added for palatability. 

In the earlier stages there are fermen- 
tation and consequent formation of gas, 
which may continue for days, depending 
upon the amount of solid material clinging 
to the walls of the intestines, and also 
upon what may be termed the virulence of 
the bile and other waste deposited in the 
bowels. The gas formed is often the cause 
of colicky pains, and is always a source 
of uncomfortable moments until removed. 
Manipulation of the abdomen and hot wa- 
ter applications are of great assistance at 
times like these, since they tend to reduce 
the inflated bowel by stimulating peris- 
talsis, and thus bring about the discharge 
of the gas. 

Almost all fasters pass through a period 
of chilliness and of temperature slightly 



48 FASTING FOR THE 

below register. This is aggravated in cer- 
tain temperaments, and its causes are sub- 
sequently explained; but, as elimination 
progresses, and as disease disappears, tem- 
perature approaches and invariably 
reaches normal, usually long before the 
fast is ended. 

Sometimes ringing in the ears annoys 
the patient, and as relaxation takes place 
there may be partial deafness in one or 
both organs. The fast will eventually cor- 
rect this, but a soft rubber syringe and 
warm water will assist materially, and 
will hasten the relief. Finger massage of 
the muscles surrounding the ears also 
proves beneficial, and any adhering wax 
may ordinarily be loosened by inserting 
the tip of the empty syringe into the ear, 
and by then expelling the air and allow- 
ing the bulb to fill a number of times in 
succession. Care should be taken not to 
exert too much pressure upon the drum. 

In defective vision resulting from mus- 
cular inefficiency, or even when presbyopia 
or myopia is present, in many instances 
the fast develops improvement. Conges- 
tion is always rapidly relieved and eye- 



CURE OF DISEASE 49 

strain with it, so that glasses are often 
laid aside, and natural normal sight is 
restored. In some long-standing myopic 
cases the defects show snch change for 
the better that weaker lenses are found to 
answer the requirements of sight; and, 
when astigmatism is the fault, the chances 
are that a fast will entirely correct the 
difficulty. 

The more usual indication of disease as 
it affects bodily temperature is fever; but 
it is quite frequently the case that in 
anemic subjects shortly after the begin- 
ning of a fast, the temperature drops a 
degree or so below register. This is 
caused by the absence of food stimulation, 
for a fast never lowers the temperature. 
It is always low in instances of long- 
standing debility, and it is high in propor- 
tion to the severity of acute disease. A 
fast tends to restore temperature and 
pulse to normal, be they high or low to be- 
gin with. The author treated a patient 
whose temperature was habitually ninety- 
four degrees. On a fast it apparently 
made no change until the twentieth day, 
and it reached normal on the thirtieth 



50 FASTING FOR THE 

when the fast ended with the return of 
hunger. 

In any case the temperature is merely 
a symptom of the intensity of Nature's 
efforts to restore a normal condition, and 
is a fight for life that has little need to be 
suppressed. No thermometer is necessary 
to read the severity of disease. If the 
pulse and temperature are above or be- 
low normal at the beginning of a fast, 
they will go down to normal or up to 
normal as the case may be when disease 
disappears, and perhaps while other symp- 
toms are still present. 

One word more as to bodily tempera- 
ture in connection with the fast. Physiol- 
ogy asserts that there can be no digestion 
in the absence of digestive juices, and 
that there is almost no secretion of these 
fluids when fever is in evidence. Why, 
then, feed during high temperature? Com- 
mon sense announces that without diges- 
tion there can be no nourishment, no up- 
building of wasted tissue. Why add the 
burden of eliminating undigested material 
to the already great effort Nature is 
employing to reduce the overstimulated 



CURE OF DISEASE 51 

heart action? The surest means to cor- 
rect a fever is to withhold food; and, in 
any event, since under a fast the tendency 
in all respects is towards the normal, 
abstinence from food is the certain method 
to employ for its attainment. 

Such symptoms as occur in the begin- 
ning of the fast, weakness, vertigo, and 
the like, may all be ascribed to food stimu- 
lation. They are akin to those observed 
in the steady consumer of alcoholics on 
the omission of his morning dram. After 
these signs disappear, the patient finds 
himself stronger, and in most instances 
able to attend without difficulty to his 
ordinary labor, and to approach it with 
brain marvelously clear. In other words, 
with the loss of stimulation due to food 
and food poison, disease decreases, and 
the patient's real strength manifests it- 
self. He is not any weaker than he has 
been at any time during his previous 
diseased existence, for he has been living 
under stimulation, which is no indication 
of vitality, for it is not strength. 

The subject of food stimulation has not 
received the attention that it deserves, for 



52 FASTING FOR THE 

it is always a most important factor in 
disease, and must be considered as such in 
any system of treatment. After the body 
has become accustomed to a certain food 
supply, whatever the quantity or the hours 
of consumption, it seriously objects when 
denied. The system may be greatly over- 
fed and may be slowly poisoning itself 
through its own indiscretions; yet the 
omission of a meal sets the stomach clam- 
oring for its dose. So much for habit. 
Given the usual quota, matters progress 
comparatively smoothly until the excess 
of filth is too heavy to be carried, or some 
microbe or other finds inviting soil in 
which to increase and multiply, and then 
Nature calls a halt, and attempts to cor- 
rect things by disease. The removal of 
the familiar whip, the food supply, gives 
her the opportunity, but the patient is 
plunged for a while into the depths. 
Stimulation, so long a habit, now seems 
necessary to counteract the symptoms 
produced by deprivation, and at this time 
the mentality must be called to the rescue, 
and the will must be asserted in all its 
strength to overcome the disposition and 



CURE OF DISEASE 53 

the desire to resume eating. Stimulation, 
whether it be from food, alcohol, poison, 
or nervous excitement, is always followed 
by a period of depression. 

The paradoxical statement that a sick 
and seemingly weak man is a man of 
strength is explained by the simple fact 
that all avenues for the passage of energy 
and vitality are so clogged by disease as 
to be useless. Once disease is eliminated, 
these forces are liberated, and strength is 
revealed. 

The mysterious powers, energy and 
vitality, which are expressed as life, exist 
outside of and independent of the human 
body as they do within it. A healthy 
organism is one that is in position to 
liberate these forces in the form of 
strength as they are needed in the activ- 
ities. Energy and vitality animate alike 
the blade of grass, the rock of the fields, 
and the fabric of man. When, through 
fasting, dead and noxious refuse is elimi- 
nated, the manifestation of each of these 
qualities is evident, and we learn that man 
does not depend upon food for inherent 
energy or vitality, nor for their expres- 



54 FASTING FOR CURE 

sion, strength. Food is needed only for 
the repair of broken-down tissue, for the 
upbuilding and rebuilding of the frame- 
work that carries the human entity, the 
human soul. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Duration of Fast. 

In observed cases of so-called starva- 
tion in medical history, the following table 
from Yeo's "Physiology" exhibits the 
consumption of tissue and fluid: — fat, 
91% ; muscle, 30% ; liver, 56% ; spleen, 63% ; 
blood, 17% ; nerve centers, 0%. Fat, it 
will be seen, is almost entirely consumed, 
and the muscle waste is but one-third. 
The loss is not remarkable in the organs 
mentioned, nor in the blood; but the last 
item is peculiar, and is a seemingly im- 
possible result. That the brain and the 
other nerve centers are not in the least 
affected by absence of food prolonged to 
starvation is paradoxical, but explanation 
is ready at hand. Nerve tissue uses the 
body itself as a food supply, and its 
source of subsistence during a fast is no 
different from that when food is ingested 
in usual quantities. The whole nervous 
system regains its vigor by rest and sleep 

55 



~>6 FASTING FOR THE 

alone, and maintains its substance at a 
maximum by the means described. Hence 
so long as there remain tissue and blood 
sufficient to carry on the work of the circu- 
lation, the nerves will continue directing 
the same and will not waste away in the 
labor. 

We may look at this power that the 
brain possesses of consuming the body, 
as the cause of loss of weight in illness. 
It seems to prefer what is most con- 
veniently spared when it makes a choice of 
diet, for fat disappears first, and the rest 
of the tissue is utilized in the inverse 
order of the usefulness of its parts. 
When, in disease, digestive action is ab- 
sent and there is positive aversion to 
food, and since we now recognize that 
food is not the source of inherent vitality, 
the fact that the patient shows an increase 
in vital power and in strength during the 
fast as disease diminishes should now 
need no further demonstration. 

The duration of the fast is a matter 
that cannot be predicted or prescribed, 
for the treatment has its beginning in 
diseased appetite, and its end in that hun- 



CURE OF DISEASE 57 

ger that marks the return of digestive 
power. Until the latter arrives, and its 
appearance cannot be mistaken, the fast 
should continue. Then, and not till then, 
is the system in condition again to re- 
ceive and transform food into body tissue. 
Numerous essentials govern the extent 
of time that should be given to the fast 
proper. If preparation can be had, a 
shorter interval is needed, for cleansing 
has progressed in partial manner while 
meals were being omitted. Also it hap- 
pens that patients are so weakened and 
the avenues of vitality are so clogged by 
disease as to forbid long abstinence; and 
in this event short fasts are in order, al- 
ternating with periods of dieting. In ordi- 
nary cases the one remedy, is a long con- 
tinuous fast ; and it may be carried to its 
logical end without danger or alarm, for 
in the power that the brain holds of feed- 
ing at the expense of the body lies the 
absolute safety of the treatment. The use 
of the tissues to nourish the nerve centers 
progresses so perfectly that there is no 
cost to the vitality, and the average adult 
bears within him brain food sufficient to 



58 FASTING FOR THE 

sustain life for many weeks. Unless or- 
ganic disease exists and repair is impos- 
sible, the patient will, after the fast has 
removed the impurities in his system, 
rapidly return to perfect health. 

When, in the fast, the period is reached 
that marks the disappearance of disease, 
the subject begins to use his own vitality, 
his own strength. At this time also the 
mental qualities are found at a maximum, 
and all avenues of energy and vitality are 
free and unclogged, prepared in every 
way for the transfer of strength. Here 
an increase in weight often occurs, another 
seemingly impossible effect, for in the 
ordinary method of reasoning from a phys- 
iological standpoint, there can be no phys- 
ical gain without a corresponding intake. 
The weak man again surprises himself 
with his strength, and he finds that the 
oxygen of the air and the nutriment con- 
tained in pure water are hardly to be ab- 
sorbed in quantity sufficient to account 
for an increase of five or six pounds on 
the scales. And further, at the end of 
the fast, gains in weight are recorded that 
can in no way be balanced by the intake. 



CURE OF DISEASE 59 

In several instances when food ingested 
amounted to sixteen ounces daily for five 
days in succession, the gain in weight was 
never less than four pounds a day, and on 
one or two days reached five pounds. 
This increase continues and gradually de- 
creases until the normal weight of the in- 
dividual is reached, when, with proper 
care of diet and exercise, normal weight 
as well as normal functions will be pre- 
served indefinitely. 

The signs of a completed fast are most 
easily recognized. The tongue slowly 
clears, and, when the fast concludes, is 
pink and clean; the breath sweetens, and 
at the end is without odor; appetite and 
false hunger give way to natural hunger, 
a sensation exquisite beyond description, 
that may be realized only by a clean, pure, 
regenerated system. 

Few people ever know natural hunger, 
and it is well worth working to the end 
that it may be experienced. Even the 
natural taste of food is unknown to the 
great majority, for cooking is done with 
seasoning added, and condiments abuse 
the sense of taste to the degree that there 



60 FASTING FOR THE 

is no pleasure in eating if they are absent. 
Natural hunger relishes natural food, and 
to him that knows it no morsel is without 
delight. 

The question, "How long must I fast?" 
can never be answered with certainty ; and 
again it must be repeated that each indi- 
vidual develops his own case, and that 
each case has its own limitations and re- 
quirements. Sometimes it is good judg- 
ment to break the fast before the system 
is completely cleansed, to return after an 
interval of dieting to abstinence, but the 
most satisfactory method is the long con- 
tinuous fast that finishes the work, and 
gives to the sufferer a new and thoroughly 
cleansed body, ready to take up its labors 
and with proper hygienic care to carry 
them on indefinitely. 

In breaking the fast, and this applies 
especially to a fast completed in all senses 
and with natural hunger in evidence, great 
care must be used. How much, how often, 
and what to eat at this time and through- 
out the rebuilding process, are matters 
of vital import. When eating is resumed, 
excessive desire for food develops; and, 



CURE OF DISEASE 61 

if this be indulged and not restrained, the 
benefits of the cleansing that the patient 
has undergone are apt to be neutralized, if 
not absolutely destroyed. Just here is 
where the care and direction of one con- 
versant in all respects with the method of 
treatment are almost necessary to success- 
ful issue. Even after the normal amount 
of food supply is reached, it is incumbent 
upon the patient to continue the diet pre- 
scribed, and to follow certain daily 
exercises that tend to rebuild the wasted 
muscular tissue. When the fast is ended 
and the cleansing of the body is complete, 
heart, arteries, and veins perform their 
work in an absolutely perfect manner; 
and, even when organic imperfection has 
caused death, temperature, pulse, and cir- 
culation have invariably remained at nor- 
mal until within a very short time of dis- 
solution. 

He argues with premises awry who be- 
lieves that following Nature necessitates 
renouncing the pleasures of living. In no 
conditions, save natural ones, is there so 
much of real gratification in the simpler 
acts that go to make up life. To eat 



62 FASTING FOR CURE 

rationally, to eat enough and no more, to 
confine one's drink to non-stimulating 
beverages, become exquisite pleasures, 
joys unknown before; and Nature permits 
no grief for the flesh-pots of Egypt, nor 
for the loss of an artificial appetite. 

All that the fast requires of its adher- 
ents is correct reasoning. Once this is 
impressed upon a mind capable of carry- 
ing the method to its fulfillment, health is 
there for the asking; but no one in 
Nature's world has ever received some- 
thing for nothing, and the law of compen- 
sation, here as elsewhere, demands reason, 
effort, and will. 



CHAPTEE V. 

Death isr the Fast. 

In ordinary conditions by far the 
greater number of deaths result from 
troubles functional, not organic. When- 
ever, through disease or shock, the brain 
finds itself unable to draw upon body 
tissue for supplies, death occurs. The 
life within is shut off only when some 
paralyzing cause, not thoroughly under- 
stood, prevents nourishment of nerve cen- 
ters; and it is questionable whether, in a 
conscious being, death has ever resulted 
from starvation, or, in other words, from 
the exhaustion of body tissue as brain 
food. No evidence that can be taken as 
conclusive shows this to be the fact. 

There is no more paralyzing agent than 
unreasoning fear; and terror plays its 
part in accidental situations, such as mine 
disasters, shipwrecks, and the like. Death 
in the fast never results from deprivation 
of food, but is the inevitable consequence 

63 



64 FASTING FOR THE 

of vitality sapped to the last degree by 
organic imperfection. One instance of 
this is illustrative of all, and it is inserted 
for the light it casts on those cases in 
which an ignorant and thoughtless public 
visits its condemnation upon the develop- 
ment of great utilitarian truths. 

The subject, a woman, who had devoted 
twenty years of vain attempt to enjoy 
normal healthy existence under many 
methods of treatment, finally discovered 
that dieting and short fasts were the only 
means of obtaining temporary relief. 
That her condition was perilous at the 
time of consultation was plainly evident, 
and that an absolute fast could not be 
considered immediately was apparent as 
well. Careful dieting was advised and 
was continued until six months later, when 
the patient insisted upon carrying out a 
full fast. 

Her stomach was not digesting food, 
nor had it been doing so for a long time; 
but she had cut down her supply to two 
light meals daily, and had received partial 
benefit from the lessened strain upon the 
digestive tract. After three weeks of 



CURE OF DISEASE 65 

gradual omission, she reached the total 
abstinence stage, and at once felt the 
greatest relief. At the end of ten days, 
fruit juices were administered with good 
effect, and on the twentieth day the 
patient thought that her stomach could 
handle food once more. Experience has 
shown in cases of this kind that opposi- 
tion, whatsoever be the personal opinion, 
is unwise, so vegetable broths were fed. 
The organs of digestion could not, as was 
plainly evident, have reached the cleansed 
and rested condition that would allow 
them to resume their labors, and the ad- 
ministration of food resulted in placing 
the patient in bed with nausea and fermen- 
tation in the intestines. All this was 
foreseen and foretold, but the other and 
stronger reason for the consequences 
described was not revealed until later. 

The case at this stage was brought to 
the attention of several skilled medical 
practitioners, but nothing could be sug- 
gested, since the stomach refused nourish- 
ment, and there was great difficulty in the 
retention of even water. Matters pro- 
gressed somewhat favorably, notwith- 



66 FASTING FOR THE 

standing, for more than two weeks, with 
normal pulse and temperature, but with 
no material improvement. As a final 
resort, a consultation of medical men was 
called, but again they were helpless, and 
death intervened at the end of the fortieth 
day. 

The autopsy revealed a condition that 
Nature had already predicated. The 
stomach occupied a position such that its 
pyloric opening was turned forward and 
downward six or seven inches; the lower 
surface of the organ lay opposite the 
navel, and its normal shape was so dis- 
torted that it measured nearly two feet in 
length. In addition, the small intestines 
at various points adhered to the walls of 
the peritoneum, and the stomach itself 
had to be cut from the same surface in 
order to expose it entirely to view. 

The medical history of the case showed 
an aggravated attack of typhoid fever and 
peritonitis about twelve years previous. 
This determined the date of the adhesions 
and of the consequent distortion in stom- 
ach and intestines. In attempting to over- 
come existing conditions, the gall bladder 



CURE OF DISEASE 67 

had developed to the size of two fists, and 
the liver had turned black as a coal. 

The wonder was that Nature had been 
able to preserve this organically imper- 
fect structure for the years that it had 
lived. In the story of this woman's 
physical existence, medicine rendered no 
assistance, and the progress of disease 
showed nothing but decline. Bilious dis- 
charges and weakened heart action were 
symptoms that never varied except to be 
aggravated as time went on. The fast 
with its accompanying enemas disclosed 
from the first day immense quantities of 
vile, black filth; and, until the twentieth 
day, the case showed decided ease and 
lessened pain; but still there was no de- 
crease in the amount of stored up rotten- 
ness that each injection revealed; and 
Nature at length indicated that organic 
trouble beyond repair existed, and that 
death was inevitable. 

In this connection the experience of the 
author has been more than conclusive. 
When death has occurred in the fast, its 
signals have been displayed long before 
actual dissolution. The characteristic 



68 FASTING FOR CURE 

gain in vital force and in its expression, 
strength, was absent in every instance; 
and the signs of organic trouble appeared 
in such wise as not to be mistaken. More 
conclusive than all else, the autopsy in 
each individual case disclosed derange- 
ments in bodily machinery that, in any 
event, would have ended in death, with or 
without food. In these facts lies proof 
beyond confutation that, barring organic 
imperfections, improvement is certain, and 
a cure is possible, yea probable, in every 
application of the method. Death never 
results from a properly conducted fast; it 
cannot; for, with disease eliminated, hun- 
ger returns, and Nature is ready and able 
to maintain in health a reinvigorated sys- 
tem mechanically equal to the ordinary 
task of digestion. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Mental and Bodily Reaction. 

Bodily action may be brought about in 
two ways. It may originate in the brain, 
or it may be the result of causes not 
cerebral. In either case the nerve centers 
perform their functions, whether in the 
inception of the thought or in the trans- 
ference of the outward cause. 

The act of moving one's hand, for 
instance, may originate in the brain, or 
it may occur through the fact that the 
member is in close proximity to fire. In 
the former condition, the act begins with 
the thought in the brain, and the nervous 
influence operates directly on the moving 
muscles. In the second, the sensory nerves 
inform the brain that the flesh is burning, 
and the brain sets in motion the muscles 
necessary for removal. In both instances 
the moving power emanates from the 
brain, and this phenomenon may take 



70 FASTING FOR THE 

place with reference to any part of the 
body. 

Not only are the above facts true of the 
voluntary muscles, but they are also ex- 
hibited in a similar manner in heart, lungs, 
stomach, and the functions generally. 
Swallowing an emetic causes vomiting, the 
mere sight or thought of a disgusting 
object may have the same effect, and 
imagination is oftentimes able to occasion 
action like that produced by a powerful 
drug or by a combination of physical con- 
ditions. 

Every organic act, healthy or diseased, 
is due solely to a current sent from one 
of the great nerve centers; and this may 
be set in motion either indirectly by reflex 
action or directly by feeling or thought. 
Though the fact is generally acknowledged 
that the mind and the emotions have great 
influence over the body, few know to what 
extent that influence operates. It is, in 
some respects, almost unbounded. Every 
bodily function may be hastened, delayed, 
or totally suspended, and life itself may 
be destroyed by a thought or an emotion 
just as surely as by a poisonous drug. 



CURE OF DISEASE 71 

So much for the effect of the mind upon 
the body. The question now puts itself, 
' ' Is this action reciprocal ? Does the physi- 
cal condition equally affect the mind?" 
Experience teaches that it not only does 
have an equal effect, but that the results 
of physical disease are always displayed 
mentally ; and in melancholia, epilepsy, the 
various manias and hypochondriacal dis- 
turbances, the great and only cause is 
found in diseased digestive functions. 

The fibers of the pneumogastric nerve 
are distributed principally to the lungs 
and stomach; hence its name. Whatever 
the motor functions that this nerve sup- 
plies, it influences largely the process of 
digestion; for, when its fibers are cut be- 
low those branches that extend to the 
trachea, digestion is virtually suspended. 

Nervous influence is essential to the 
proper action of the stomach, and in its 
region the nerves interlace one with an- 
other so that even though the direct road 
be destroyed, by-paths will still remain 
for the passage of nervous power. If the 
nervous influence were not needed in di- 
gestion, no reason would exist why its 



72 PASTING FOR THE 

withdrawal should arrest the process ; and 
we know as a fact that overstudy, worry, 
anxiety, fright, and anger suspend, 
through nervous influence, all digestive 
action. The cause is clear when the close 
connection between brain and ganglia is 
considered. If nervous energy is ex- 
hausted in directions other than those 
necessary for the digestion of food, the 
same result follows as in the case of a 
severed pneumogastric nerve. 

In health the constructive and destruc- 
tive changes that take place in the human 
body progress without undue outward ef- 
fect so long as waste material is promptly 
removed, and nutritive pabulum is sup- 
plied. In conditions of debility and weak- 
ness, where either the influx is too great 
for the demand, or the waste too much for 
the eliminating organs to dispose of, ab- 
sorption of the toxins formed in the fer- 
menting mass of food rubbish retained in 
the intestines is continually going on, and 
the subject becomes a victim of auto- 
intoxication, is drunk with the products of 
his own decomposition. This condition 
long continued is no less baneful in effect 



CURE OF DISEASE 73 

than alcoholic saturation, and insanity of 
some sort or other is its ultimate destina- 
tion. 

Further exposition seems almost un- 
necessary to demonstrate the results of 
physical condition upon nerve centers. 
The cause of mental disease is one and the 
same with that of physical disturbance; 
the physical signs precede the nervous 
ones and should be heeded ere it be too 
late. 

The close connection between the mental 
and physical is always prominently dis- 
played in the consequences of the fast; 
and never more so than in the treatment 
of melancholia, and of those morbid de- 
pressions that often lead to confinement in 
state institutions. These cases originate 
in abuse of the digestive organs, which 
coupled with hereditary tendencies af- 
fects the nerve centers and ultimately the 
brain. 

In fasting these patients, improvement 
is always evident after a short time of 
preparation on low diet and omitted 
meals; and, as the complete fast pro- 
gresses, the return to sanity keeps pace 



74 FASTING FOR THE 

with the physical advance. A general fact 
observed in this class is the presence of 
prodigious quantities of black, foul-smell- 
ing discharges from the bowels, discharges 
that do not seem to cease either in quan- 
tity or in vileness until long after the 
period indicated in ordinary disease symp- 
toms. Mucus forms also a large part of 
the matter brought away by the enema. 

The value of fasting in cases of extreme 
nervousness and of insanity is almost 
unknown to alienists; but in future it is 
bound to play an important part in mental 
as it will in all disease. Fasting never 
caused a loss of mind power ; its tendency 
is in the opposite direction; and to refute 
the criticism that prolonged abstinence 
from food results in insanity, the author 
points to considerably over one thousand 
continuous fasts in which no case de- 
veloped aught but improvement in brain 
function. 

All functional derangements not cor- 
rected lead finally to organic disease. In 
the latter some part of the bodily appa- 
ratus is mechanically unable to perform 
its work ; its structure is injured or essen- 



CURE OF DISEASE 75 

tially imperfect. In functional disease, the 
structure of the apparatus shows no de- 
rangement nor any morbid condition, but 
yet it acts inefficiently. That drugs do not 
affect brain structure is today well estab- 
lished; that insanity in most instances 
causes no deterioration in cell or nerve 
tissue is equally well known; and, in the 
latter fact is contained strong collateral 
proof that the source of mental disturb- 
ance must be sought elsewhere than in the 
instrument of thought. Injuries and dis- 
ease manifested by change in brain tissue 
will derange its operation, and, in soften- 
ing of the brain or in any inflammation, 
there are organic alterations in nerve sub- 
stance that may be seen and noted on 
examination. But, in hysteria, epilepsy, 
or mania, no changes of structure can be 
observed, notwithstanding evident func- 
tional disorder. 

The work that the brain can do depends 
upon the physical condition of the instru- 
ment and of its source of supply, body 
tissue. A functionally perfect brain re- 
sults from a physically perfect body; and 
yet the brain is not the producer of energy 



76 FASTING FOR THE 

or vitality, nor of the mental processes ; it 
acts simply as a transformer, and it no 
more thinks than do the words that ex- 
press the thought. It would seem that 
mind and matter join only through will, 
and that the real man is altogether what 
conscious purpose makes him. 

For the sake of forcing home the central 
fact about which cluster the underlying 
truths of physical life, it may again be 
stated that energy and vitality exist out- 
side of and independent of the body, as 
they do within it. Through the dynamo 
of the human machine, the brain, energy 
is liberated as needed; and, as has been 
shown, the brain recovers from fatigue by 
rest and sleep, and not by food. Its suste- 
nance is obtained from body tissue, and it 
is recharged, we know not how. Food is 
not the sole source of strength; it serves 
the purely mechanical purpose of rebuild- 
ing the body by cell replacement or 
growth. 

In this connection, whatever be the final 
solution, the theory that body heat de- 
pends upon consumption of food in the 
processes of digestion and assimilation is 



CURE OF DISEASE 77 

certainly subject to modification. It is true 
that excess of food causes rise in tempera- 
ture, or fever; but this is due to combus- 
tion in the intestines and consequent 
poison in the veins. The opposite is at 
times observed, for body temperature may 
be habitually below register. In either 
condition, abstinence from food restores 
temperature and pulse to normal. Hence, 
without attempting a complete solution of 
the problem, the actual facts are here pre- 
sented to be considered with those ad- 
vanced concerning the greater question of 
life, as revealed in the source of vitality 
and energy. 

The digestion of a meal, with the subse- 
quent forcing of food rubbish through 
stomach and bowels, costs brain power 
more than any ordinary work of muscle or 
of mind, and the result is loss to vitality, 
as overfeeding never fails to show. Suffi- 
cient food in a normal body means clear 
thought and maximum brain force; more 
than this entails excessive labor on the 
organs of digestion and consequent over- 
time charged to vitality. 

From these facts and from the results 



78 FASTING FOR CURE 

of the treatment as cited previously, it 
should be clear that, as a fast progresses, 
a condition almost purely mental is 
reached, a condition in which the whole of 
life is concerned solely with the intel- 
lectual or spiritual side of Nature as dis- 
tinguished from the material. Thus it is 
that, in the fervor of concentration and of 
introspection, the Yogi lives not eating; 
thus it was that, in anticipation of the 
test when every spiritual sense was valued 
at its maximum perceptive worth, the 
Christ abstained from food. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Sexual, Disease and the Fast. 

In the fast the sexual desires, whether 
formerly excessively or moderately active, 
or in abeyance, are brought to normal; 
and attention to diet and to right living 
finds passion controlled and subservient 
in all senses to will. While the fast is in 
progress desire leaves, and in woman at 
this time the menses do not usually ap- 
pear. All nature rests and bides the day 
when every function, including the highest, 
may again take up its labor, restored to 
pristine vigor and filled with the joy of 
life and work. 

Women, who for years have suffered at 
their monthly periods, look in vain for the 
usual pains, and do not recover for 
months from the sense of fear lest they 
again occur. With correct living the men- 
strual difficulties have disappeared for 
good and all. As a matter of fact the dis- 
charge may not be present for several 

79 



80 FASTING FOR THE 

periods after the completion of the fast, 
but finally it will return odorless and 
healthy in appearance. Its absence should 
occasion no alarm; but, on the other hand, 
in a few instances in the experience of the 
author, the menses have occurred during 
the fast, almost viscid in consistency and 
most offensive in odor. But this may be 
regarded as the result of extreme conges- 
tion of ovaries and uterus, and as a 
natural cleansing of a clogged and filthy 
reproductive system, all of which happens 
in slighter degree in every woman. 

Ordinarily ovarian congestion is over- 
come and the impurities deposited in 
these parts are eliminated in the usual 
manner through the circulation, but the 
extraordinary manifestation described 
should produce no more alarm than the 
absence of the menses during the fast. 
Both are legitimate in origin, and are 
signs of Nature's housecleaning. 

While the menstrual flow is present in 
the females of all mammals, it is barely 
perceptible in some and in none is it so 
great in quantity as in woman. She is 
the only female in the whole animal king- 



CURE OF DISEASE 81 

dom that is compelled to undergo the 
monthly inconvenience of copious dis- 
charge from the uterus and its appendages. 
This is the penalty attached by Nature to 
thousands of years of use of the organs of 
reproduction for other than legitimate 
purposes, and is a beautiful illustration 
of the universal law of compensation. 

In treating the disease symptom known 
as menorrhagia or excessive menstruation, 
a fast of two or three days will reduce the 
flow to nil; and in cases of foul or of 
painful menstruation permanent relief is 
obtained in less than twenty-four hours. 
Heat and manipulation are helpful agents 
in this connection, and they materially 
hasten results. It is necessary to add that 
in all cases of this kind a complete 
cleansing is imperative if the results ob- 
tained are to stand, and right living in 
the future is a positive condition of con- 
tinued well-being. 

The menopause or change of life is a 
period dreaded by all women. There is 
never any certainty as to the consequences 
it will produce, nor any method of telling 
just how they will be manifested. Fasting 



82 FASTING FOR THE 

has demonstrated that the menses may be 
properly regulated, and that assurance as 
to their recurrence is possible when right 
living is practiced. The menopause is a 
normal event, and every woman should 
pass through it without pain, excessive 
nervousness, or other evil effect. All 
these things are possible to a system 
cleansed by a fast. 

Ever-present female troubles are un- 
known to Nature when her dictates are 
acknowledged and pursued. The fast and 
subsequent treatment result in a set of 
healthy muscles for the support of the 
organs of reproduction, and in healthy 
secretions for all purposes peculiar to 
these parts. Judicious exercise strength- 
ens the sustaining ligaments, and they do 
not fail in their work if rightly used there- 
after. 

Woman's dress is responsible for many 
of her physical weaknesses, and, without 
entering into detail it is well to mention 
here the one garment to which is at- 
tributed so much of female woe. The 
corset has no place in the wardrobe of 
a sane, healthy, normal woman. Her own 



CURE OF DISEASE 83 

muscles shape her form as Nature in- 
tended, and any one of the sex, not posi- 
tively deformed in bony structure, may 
attain a perfect figure by correct living 
and by proper exercise. In addition, the 
corset causes a number of displacements 
in woman's special organs; and lungs, 
liver, and intestines suffer in many ways 
from its constrictive effects. All gar- 
ments should, as far as possible, hang 
from the shoulders; and there should be 
no restraining or binding cords, bones, or 
elastics to restrict free movement, or to 
hinder circulation. Lack of nourishment 
is just as much to blame for disease ex- 
pressed by symptoms located in the repro- 
ductive system as is the corset. Muscles 
not properly rebuilt, energy impeded in 
the process of liberation, and intestines 
filled with food rubbish, all combine in 
the attack, and cause congestion, inflam- 
mation, and sexual decay. 

In connection with the sexual effects of 
the fast and of diet, the experience of the 
author has shown that children fed upon 
a non-flesh basis develop sexually in a 
gradual normal manner, and exhibit fewer 



84 FASTING FOR CURE 

tendencies toward sexual abuse or perver- 
sion than are found in those whose diet is 
composed largely of meat. 

Just what normal desire between the 
sexes originally meant is somewhat dif- 
ficult to state, but it is safe to assume that 
normal sex relations were limited to pur- 
poses of procreation. The fast restores 
all functions to a primary condition, and 
male as well as female find the sexual in- 
stinct dominated by the intellect. During 
the fast desire leaves, but is restored in 
natural characteristic quality when disease 
is eliminated and health returns. It is 
well to add that the fast will invariably 
restore normal sex functions though pre- 
viously non-existent. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Enema. 

Much has been written concerning the 
enema or internal bath, and opinions vary 
as to its efficacy and the results of its 
continued use. In fasting, experience has 
shown that daily flushing of the colon is 
a positive necessity for success in the 
treatment. This matter has been referred 
to previously in the text, and it has been 
established conclusively that the fluid state 
of the waste thrown into the intestines at 
this time admits of easy absorption and 
of consequent septic poisoning. Peristaltic 
action in the absence of fresh supplies of 
food is sluggish, and absorption proceeds 
despite the material. Hence the need for 
prompt removal; and here the internal 
bath is a staunch ally. 

Objections are made to the use of the 

enema on the scores that it is not natural 

and that it tends to dilate the bowel. For 

the moment, in answer to the first differ- 

86 



86 FASTING FOR THE 

ence, it is sufficient to say that laxatives 
and cathartics are themselves against 
Nature. To the second, a bit more detail 
is needed in reply. 

The enema should be administered in 
the knee-chest posture, the Sims' position 
of medicine, and in no other way. The 
descending colon lies on the left side of 
the lower trunk, and contains the bend 
known as the sigmoid flexure, a device of 
Nature for preventing too much pressure 
by the contents of the bowel on the mus- 
cles of the rectum and the anus. The 
flexure breaks the straight fall from the 
transverse portion of the large intestine 
to the rectum, and acts as a containing 
pouch. When the patient, in taking the 
injection, lies on the right side, the water 
is compelled to rise against gravity 
around and through this bend, and the 
colon is not completely flushed; indeed, it 
is safe to conclude that, in this position, 
not even the flexure itself is cleansed. 
When the left side is down and the right 
elevated, the condition is somewhat bet- 
tered, for gravity has a chance to assist 
as far as the bend from the descending 



CURE OP DISEASE 87 

colon to the transverse; but here a new 
difficulty occurs, for the transverse colon 
is now a perpendicular tube and precludes 
further progress against its contents and 
gravity. When the injection is taken in 
the sitting posture, the rectum alone is 
affected, and dilatation will surely happen. 
Hence there are but two positions in 
which the whole of the colon will receive a 
supply of water sufficient to soften its 
hardened contents and to wash them away 
from its walls. These are the knee-chest 
posture and the shoulder-buttock, flat-on- 
the-back, or Simon's position. The latter, 
except in bed-ridden cases, is incon- 
venient; but the former, once adopted, is 
found to be comfortable and easily as- 
sumed. In this attitude gravity assists 
the water in its flow through the descend- 
ing colon, and across the transverse; and, 
on rising, a portion of the enema finds its 
way, aided by the upright position, into 
the ascending colon. If, as advised, not 
one, but two, three, or four bags are used, 
the bowel is completely flushed, and the 
loosened matter is carried to the rectum 
and evacuated. This of course means 



88 FASTING FOR THE 

that the fluid from each bag with its addi- 
tions be discharged before the contents of 
the next bag are administered, for in this 
way undue pressure and dilatation are 
avoided. 

The enema is a necessary adjunct in 
fasting, and in health it is a most reliev- 
ing and cleansing operation. Its use be- 
comes in a short while a pleasure that 
more than compensates for the slight in- 
convenience. It is not intended to convey 
the thought that the enema should be 
taken daily in health, although no actual 
harm need result; but the formation of a 
habit is to be decried, and once, twice, or 
three times a week answers all purposes. 
So long as food is cooked food, and soft 
food, and so long as it is not properly 
masticated, so long will assistance be 
needed in completely evacuating the 
bowels. That this has been a recognized 
fact for ages is evidenced by drug statis- 
tics, for ninety per cent, of all medication 
is aimed at the intestines. 

The ordinary fountain syringe equip- 
ment is sufficient for the administration of 
the bath as described, and the short rectal 



CURE OF DISEASE 89 

tube is long enough for all purposes when 
the correct posture is assumed. Gravity 
does the work. Fill the bag, preferably of 
three-quart capacity, suspend it at con- 
venient height, insert the tube, kneel upon 
the floor or cushion, put the elbows on the 
floor, and lower the head to the same level. 
Now start the flow, which may easily be 
regulated by the shut-off or by pinching 
the tube between the forefinger and thumb. 

It is possible that at first there may be a 
slight griping sensation, and a sense of 
fullness, but this is soon overcome; and, 
when one is accustomed to the position, 
the results of the enema are such that it is 
more than deprivation to omit its use. 

As the fast progresses, the bowel dis- 
charges are, to say the least, startling. 
From the first day until indications show 
that the cleansing process is logically 
ended, quantities of blackish-brown foul- 
smelling liquid are evacuated, and mixed 
with this are lumps of hardened fecal mat- 
ter dislodged from the walls of the intes- 
tines or impacted from solid particles ex- 
creted in elimination. Another feature, 
more or less noticeable in long fasts, is the 



90 FASTING FOR THE 

great amount of stringy white or yellow- 
ish mucus that comes away with each 
internal bath. It seems that the intestines 
themselves are sloughing, so complete is 
the renewal that occurs when the method 
is carried to culmination. Where inflamed 
conditions are present, blood may be in 
evidence during early stages; but, as the 
fast proceeds, soreness and ulceration 
rapidly disappear; and the discharges be- 
come, as described, simple results of 
elimination. 

Soap-suds, salt, soda, and the like 
should be avoided in the preparation of 
the enema. Absorption of a portion of 
the contents of each bag is almost instan- 
taneous, and the safer plan is to use no 
foreign substance whatever. Copious dis- 
charge from the bladder immediately 
after rectal injection is the common indi- 
cation of the rapidity with which absorp- 
tion takes place from the colon. 

Oftentimes in illness food is supplied to 
the body by injections per rectum. It 
would be deemed an act of insanity to 
deliver drinking water to household 
faucets through the sewers of a city. 



CURE OF DISEASE 91 

Analogy is plainly evident in the methods 
of transmission named, and so-called nutri- 
tious enemata are so absolutely against 
Nature, and so disgusting to the thought, 
that reason seems lacking in the mind that 
suggests them. Similarly injections of oil 
of any kind are to be decried, and warmed 
plain water, or distilled water, if pollution 
of any sort is feared, should be the only 
flushing agent. 

Judicious use of the enema is a certain 
preventive of extreme congestion in 
rectum and in anus. Hemorrhoids are un- 
known to the habitual employer of a prop- 
erly administered weekly or semi-weekly 
internal bath. And more, in conjunction 
with the fast, no case of piles will with- 
stand the warm water injection, but will 
quickly disappear as the system reverts 
to normal. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Children in the Fast. 

Children respond to the fasting treat- 
ment in a marvelous way, for, where in- 
nate vitality is great or has not been 
drawn upon by years of overeating or of 
physical abuse, the outcome is assured 
and is most rapid in accomplishment. In 
the adult toxins are quickly manufactured, 
but are not thrown off as they are pro- 
duced; in youth this fatigue poison is 
eliminated more quickly than upbuilding 
takes place. These facts are illustrated 
when overexertion occurs, for the man 
succumbs to auto-intoxication, but the 
child suffers from actual exhaustion or 
want of potential. 

Beginning at birth, the desire on the 
part of a baby's immediate family seems 
to consist in forcing food upon the new- 
comer. If the mother be not ready for the 
operation, the cow is called upon, and the 
result is colic or disease at the very 

92 



CURE OF DISEASE 93 

threshold of the poor mite's existence. It 
never harms an infant to delay feeding 
within reason nntil the mother can take 
care of her legitimate work, or until natu- 
ral supplies can be furnished. Nature has 
stored in the tissue of the child sufficient 
for its support for from three to five days, 
and a great error is committed when feed- 
ing is begun too soon. 

The story of the average baby's early 
years contains successive fifteen-minute 
paragraphs of eating. Its waking moments 
are devoted to the business of the mouth 
and stomach, and the habit of chewing is 
formed for it long before it can talk. This 
may be called instinct, but it is almost all 
due to training either by mother or by 
nurse. 

Some day, perhaps, sane feeding of 
young children will be the rule, but until 
then the usual infantile disease symptoms 
will manifest themselves. The contention 
that all disease has its origin in impaired 
digestive power is more strongly upheld 
when disturbances occur in the young than 
when the adult organism is affected. In 
the child, unaccustomed to continued 



94 FASTING FOR THE 

abuse of the body and its functions, with 
no habits formed, the system resents any 
but natural treatment. If the contrary is 
persistently administered, some such dis- 
ease symptom as cholera infantum, diph- 
theria, or scarlet fever develops, which, 
like other ills, are results of false stand- 
ards in habit and in diet. 

The infant from birth through the first 
two years of its existence should never be 
fed more than four times daily, and night 
feeding should not be thought of. As in 
the adult, when disease appears, prompt 
withholding of food removes the imme- 
diate cause of disturbance; an enema or 
several of them clears the digestive prod- 
ucts from the bowels; fever drops at 
once; diarrhoea and colic disappear; and 
in two or three days at longest the young- 
ster is whole and hearty again. A fast of 
a day is most beneficial to even the young- 
est of babes. No alarm need be felt, and 
Nature readjusts the little system most 
rapidly, so that the functions resume their 
labors rested and invigorated. 

In this connection it is well to mention 
that the mental condition of a nursing 



CURE OP DISEASE 95 

mother will, at times, bring about such 
changes in the milk of her breasts as to 
cause serious illness in the sucking child. 
Mother's milk, affected by a mother's 
mind, becomes, through functional de- 
rangement of nerve force, a virulent 
poison; and as surely as the babe is fed 
with milk secreted in circumstances that 
show grief, or anxiety, or anger, so surely 
will its digestive apparatus reflect the 
mental state of the mother. 

The recuperative powers of a child are 
wonderful when allowed to display them- 
selves; and it takes many years of abuse 
to dispel vitality from a young body. 
Perhaps better illustration may be thrown 
upon the subject by describing the treat- 
ment of the mysterious and dreaded 
disease symptom known to medicine as 
cerebro-spinal meningitis. The death rate 
of this disorder is over ninety per cent., 
and medicine is at sea concerning its 
origin, its treatment, and its cure. As its 
site at the base of the brain precludes any 
but post-mortem examination, it bids 
fair to occupy an impregnable position 
from a medical standpoint for some time 
to come. 



96 FASTING FOR THE 

As the name implies, cerebro-spinal 
meningitis is an inflammation of one of 
the meninges or coverings of the spinal 
cord, the covering known as the pia mater. 
This immediately surrounds the cord, and 
as the inflammation develops at or near 
the point where the latter joins the brain 
substance, it is a symptom to be feared in 
even its milder forms. Its causes are 
stated in the text-books to be shocks, 
lacerations, or concussions; disease symp- 
toms located near the seat of trouble or 
in close connection with the spinal cord; 
sometimes acute disease symptoms that 
may or may not be connected ; and, though 
very rare, excessive mental work or excite- 
ment. The symptoms occur more often in 
the young, although they may and do ap- 
pear in adults, but much less frequently. 

In conjunction with the inflammation, 
bacteriologists have discovered a coccus 
known as the "Diplococcus Fraenkel," 
and named for the scientist who first sepa- 
rated and classified the germ. This organ- 
ism, also, is always found in the lungs in 
acute pneumonia, and there seems to be a 
close relation between the two disease 
symptoms, at least in some of their forms. 



CURE OF DISEASE 97 

When first attacked, the signs are 
nausea, headache at the base of the brain, 
and fever that may at once leap to 104 
or 105 degrees. The pulse is variable but 
more often slow. In the so-called epidemic 
form a skin eruption is one of the 
features. The progress of the conditions 
is rapid, and in acute cases from three to 
five days mark its limit. Even in the 
earlier stages there is delirium, and in 
the later ones coma ending in death occurs. 

Medical treatment calls for nutrition 
every three or four hours, either in the 
natural way or per rectum. Hot applica- 
tions to the extremities are used to keep 
the blood from the head, and bleeding was 
formerly resorted to, though it is forbid- 
den today. Drugs for allaying pain and 
delirium are also brought into play, but 
no specific has been found in all materia 
medica, nor ever will be. 

However, the remedy exists, as it does 
for all disease, when vitality has not been 
permanently clogged in its transfer by 
abuse and maltreatment. The moment 
that disease is recognized in its true light 
as Nature's cure, the real and only specific 



98 FASTING FOR THE 

is discovered, — rest for the overworked 
parts of the machine, and renewal for 
those functions that need repair. 

Referring to a former remark concern- 
ing feeding during high temperature, why, 
in the symptom under discussion or in 
any other, put food into a system burning 
with fever? Adding fuel to an over- 
heated stove is ordinarily not a rational 
way of damping the fire. Until disease 
appeared the patient was feeding, and in 
all probability was stricken with a full 
stomach. Fever is due to absorption of 
rotting food rubbish in the alimentary 
canal, and when food is forced into this 
mass, either from above or below, the re- 
sults are increased temperature and more 
acute illness. Drugs administered in the 
circumstances are stimulants or narcotics ; 
the former raise the action of the heart 
and with it the temperature, and the latter 
lower nerve transmission. 

Rationally the method to be employed 
should remove the cause of the condition, 
and the first step in its accomplishment is 
found in the absolute withdrawal of food. 
The next is taken in the removal of all 



^ 



CURE OF DISEASE 99 

traces of food rubbish that remain in the 
intestines, and this should be done with 
the utmost celerity. Warm water enemas 
of plain water properly given will flush 
the colon, and before the first day is ended, 
the major portion of the mass of poison- 
ous filth will have been removed. The re- 
sults are at once apparent: fever drops 
one, two, three degrees; delirium ceases; 
and the patient is a long way towards re- 
covery. 

To assist in lowering temperature, cold 
compresses may be applied along the 
spine and over the abdomen, but cold 
water should be used only when reaction 
is prompt and vigorous. If there be ten- 
dency to chill, artificial heat must be em- 
ployed, and in any event hot water appli- 
cations to the base of the brain and along 
the spinal column, continuously laid, are 
of vital import in reducing inflammation. 
Each day should see the details of the 
method carefully and constantly followed, 
for success depends upon faithfulness in 
every particular. Food must not be given 
until fever has entirely disappeared, and 
fruit juices and vegetable broths afford 
the best introduction to more solid forms. 



100 FASTING FOR CURE 

Cerebro-spinal meningitis is at times so 
prevalent in a community as to lead to 
the assumption that it is either contagious 
or infectious, both classifications having 
been made by authorities presumably com- 
petent. It will be found, however, that the 
so-called epidemic usually occurs after a 
season during which children have been 
housed and have suffered from lack of 
exercise and from contaminated air in 
close quarters. The ever-present germ finds 
in these subjects inviting soil in which 
to propagate, and many victims ready for 
its cultivation. Herein lies the sole reason 
for the number of cases frequently de- 
veloped in late winter or in early spring. 



CHAPTEE X. 
Diet. 

Diet at any time is largely a matter of 
special need, but it would seem that, after 
a course of fasting, the success of which 
depends upon reduction to normal in all 
respects, certain set rules might be laid 
down to apply in every case. Even here, 
however, peculiar requirements develop in 
each individual. The sins of generations 
of ancestors are in great measure respon- 
sible for these conditions, and empiric 
methods must be used to determine the 
foods necessary to supply nourishment in 
proper quantity, distribution, and propor- 
tion. 

Taste figures more than aught else in 
the selection of food material in health. 
It is popularly believed that when an arti- 
cle of food is not repugnant to the sense of 
taste, it is wholesome and healthful, and 
that harm cannot result from its ingestion. 

The fallacy of such doctrine is easily 

101 



102 FASTING FOR THE 

shown, for tastes are generally abnormal 
and perverted, and their variations are 
such that a volume could be filled with 
strange tales concerning them. The ques- 
tion resolves itself into not how much can 
be eaten, nor how pleasant is the process, 
but what is the body's need? 

It is true that, after a fast, all natural 
food is agreeable to the taste, and is de- 
sired with hunger inspired by a clean, 
healthy system that asks wholesome nour- 
ishment, and that fully enjoys its inges- 
tion and digestion. Simple foods, prop- 
erly prepared and correctly proportioned 
as to quanta of fats, carbo-hydrates, and 
protein, and the mineral salts necessary, 
are what the dietitian and the individual 
should aim to supply. The fast is over, 
the system cleansed, and the digestive 
organs are in full vigor and waiting to 
make pure blood and pure tissue from 
proper food. 

No further demonstration is needed to 
show that mankind habitually overeats, 
and that, as a result, nutritive material is 
absorbed in quantity beyond the require- 
ments of the body. The system is loaded 



CURE OF DISEASE 103 

with an unnecessary burden, and the 
machinery is hampered in its operation. 
But just as the liver stands guard, in so 
far as it may, over matter absorbed, and 
just as it separates the good from the 
bad ; so at the very inception of the diges- 
tive process, the mouth with its armor 
of teeth and its salivary apparatus deter- 
mines in large degree the amount of food 
needed in nutrition. 

The mouth holds the nerves of taste; 
taste is enjoyed in the mouth, and taste 
has its great purpose in deciding just 
when food has been ground between the 
teeth sufficiently to prepare it for the suc- 
cessive processes. Taste disappears when 
food has been properly insalivated, and 
too much chewing cannot be done, since 
the benefits derived are immeasurable, 
even apart from the comminution of 
solids. The mouth easily accomplishes 
this work when the habit has been ac- 
quired, but if it perform it carelessly, a 
great deal of extra labor is placed upon 
the other organs of digestion. The sub- 
ject of mastication is most important, and 
its value in digestive economy is excel- 



104 FASTING FOR THE 

lently treated in "The A-B-Z of Our Own 
Nutrition," by Horace Fletcher. 

Fletcher says: "When food is filtered 
into the body after having become lique- 
fied and made alkaline, or at least neu- 
tral, by saliva, the appetite is given a 
chance to measure the needs of the body 
and to discriminate against excess. As 
soon as the point of complete saturation 
of any one deficiency is reached, the appe- 
tite is cut off as short as possible with no 
indication of stomach fullness. It will 
welcome a little of proteid, and then turn 
to sugar or fat in some of their numerous 
forms. Thirst for water will assert itself 
for a moment, sometimes asking but for 
a drop, and again for a full glass; and, 
afterwards, when near the point of com- 
plete saturation, appetite will hesitate for 
a moment, as if searching around for 
some rare substance, and may find its 
final satisfaction in a single spoonful of 
sweet or a sip of something in sight. 

"The appetite, satisfied by the infilter- 
ing process, is a sweetly appeased appe- 
tite, calm, rested, contented, normal. There 
is no danger from the flooding of intern- 



CURE OF DISEASE 105 

perance, for there is not even toleration 
of excess either of more food or of more 
drink, and this contented appetite will 
remain in the condition of contentment 
until another need has really been earned 
by evaporation or destructive katabol- 
ism." 

In these conditions lies the solution of 
the problem of overeating. Mastication, 
carried to the degree that taste is dissi- 
pated, absolutely precludes eating save 
for the needs of metabolism. The supply 
is made equal to the demand, neither more 
nor less; and intemperance in all forms is 
effectively prevented. 

A scientific discussion of the question of 
diet is manifestly out of place in this text. 
Authorities differ widely, and none in the 
author's ken has ever dealt with feeding 
from the standpoint met after a fast, with 
a stomach made over, so to speak. Here 
we deal with first principles, and infant 
dietetics do not require as much care and 
attention as do those of the faster learn- 
ing again to eat. 

To repeat, diet is largely a matter of 
special need; but, generally, a fast should 



106 FASTING FOR THE 

be broken on vegetable broths or on ripe 
fruit juices. Artificial aids like season- 
ing are not at all missed, for hunger and 
proper mastication supply enjoyment that 
must be experienced to be appreciated. 
Within a day or two the amount of food 
may be increased, and solids in the forms 
of vegetables and fruits may be fed in 
quantity sufficient to satisfy hunger, but 
not more. In a week nuts should be 
added to the dietary, and raw foods 
should always form part of the list. The 
ideal nutriment for the human body is 
found in raw or live food; but, in exist- 
ing circumstances, a return to its use is 
problematical. The best advice that can 
be given makes imperative thorough mas- 
tication of every morsel, after exercising 
due care in its selection. 

Meat in any form should never enter 
the food supply of normal man. Argu- 
ments pro and con have long been ex- 
changed on this subject, and advocates of 
the strongest will combat the non-flesh 
diet for years to come. Two reasons will 
serve to refute this error in hygiene, and 
they are these : 



CURE OF DISEASE 107 

First, dead animal tissue holds within 
it the products of metabolism, both con- 
structive and destructive. The process 
of change is suddenly arrested when the 
animal is killed, and its juices contain 
toxins not thrown off that no amount of 
cooking can destroy. For that matter, 
even were they completely annihilated, 
flesh is still vegetable tissue with the 
waste of change combined in its struc- 
ture, and it seems more logical to consume 
the vegetab-° at first hand. 

Mr. Otto Carque, in his ' ' Errors of Bio- 
chemistry," says: " There is also a 
marked physiological difference between 
plant and animal food. Animals are dis- 
tinguished from vegetables by incessant 
decay in every tissue, a decay which is 
proportional to animal activity. This in- 
cessant decay necessitates incessant re- 
pair, so that the animal body has been 
likened to a temple on which two opposite 
forces are at work in every part, the one 
tearing down, the other repairing the 
breach as fast as it is made. In plants, 
no such incessant decay has ever been 
discovered. If it exists at all, it must be 



108 FASTING FOR THE 

very trifling in comparison. Protoplasm, 
it is true, is taken from the older parts 
of the plant, and these parts die; but the 
protoplasm does not seem to decompose, 
but is used again for tissue building. 
Thus the internal activity of animals is 
of two kinds, tissue destroying and tissue 
building, while that of plants is principally 
of one kind, tissue building. Flesh foods 
will, therefore, impart less vitality to our 
system than plant foods, because the for- 
mer always contain a quantity of sub- 
stances which have undergone the various 
stages of katabolism and have lost their 
vital force by producing animal heat and 
energy. We feel drowsy and indolent 
after a heavy meal of meat, while an 
apple, an orange, a bunch of grapes in- 
stantly refreshes us. The theories that 
flesh makes flesh, that blood is converted 
into blood, that calf's or sheep's brain 
increases our mental capacity, that meat 
is predigested plant food, cannot stand 
in the light of physiological chemistry/ ' 
Second, late experiments carried out 
most thoroughly by Irving Fisher, Pro- 
fessor of Political Economy at Yale Uni- 



CURE OF DISEASE 109 

versity, show beyond any chance of refu- 
tation that the physical endurance of the 
human body is increased to the utmost by 
a non-flesh diet. In these experiments 
meat-eating athletes competed in test ex- 
ercises with non-meat eaters, both seden- 
tary and athletic. The results were so 
largely in favor of the non-flesh diet that 
the most ardent advocates in opposition 
can find no loophole to escape the facts. 

No adequate explanation is as yet avail- 
able for the evident superiority of a vege- 
tarian diet over one of flesh as regards 
endurance, save, perhaps, in the theory 
that a diet composed in greater part of 
proteid produces uric acid and other crys- 
talline substances, which in turn cause 
muscular fatigue in exercise. The facts 
are patent in these instances as they are 
in all of the author's own experiments 
carried on during the past eight years 
along similar lines. A non-flesh diet 
makes a consistently strong and enduring 
physical structure, and the reverse is true 
when meat forms part of the food ingested. 

In the past facts like these have been 
obscured, and the truth has suffered, as 



110 FASTING FOR THE 

is so often the case, because the idea con- 
tained in the term " vegetarian' ' sug- 
gested what is popularly regarded as 
fanaticism gone mad. Any doctrine ad- 
vanced with polemical warmth, coupled 
with enthusiasm and dogma almost relig- 
ious, has but small degree of influence 
upon scientific thought. The matter 
should be approached calmly and with 
the seriousness due to a question that is 
of more practical import than any in the 
whole subject of hygiene. When this 
occurs, the theory embodied in the results 
of the tests mentioned, and of those con- 
ducted by the author, will be fully borne 
out and established as fact. 

With the individual himself rests the 
selection of a healthful and properly dis- 
tributed food supply. The first thing to 
consider is the amount of food necessary 
for the body, and this depends upon phys- 
ical characteristics, occupation, and the 
nature of the subject's physical exercises. 
The laboring man breaks down more tis- 
sue in shorter time than does the banker 
or the clerk; yet. usually, the latter do 
not eat fewer meals or less at a sitting 






CURE OF DISEASE 111 

than their burly brother. What is needed 
for the one is more than sufficient for the 
others. A mean may be established by the 
brain-worker should he devote his spare 
moments to outdoor recreation, or to 
manual labor; but, even then, equilibrium 
is scarcely reached, and he still eats far 
in excess of his requirements. The labor- 
ing man too is at fault in this respect, for, 
unless his be an exceptional case, the basis 
of diet is starch, which demands enormous 
bulk for satisfaction. The digestion of 
food of this kind is a great tax on the 
digestive tract and on its controlling 
nerves. 

In order to correct the conditions as 
described, the simplest remedy is to cut 
down the food supply. Perhaps the easi- 
est method to follow is to omit one of the 
regular meals, and once the habit is ac- 
quired, the early morning breakfast is not 
even missed, while reason indicates that 
it is the meal to be dropped. The brain 
and the nerves are recuperated by rest 
alone, and food or its absence causes no 
change in their functions. In fact, the 
presence of food in the stomach acts detri- 



112 FASTING FOR THE 

mentally on reasoning power, since it 
calls energy elsewhere and deprives the 
brain of just so much of its force. The 
whole mental and nervous systems, re- 
freshed by the night's rest, are at their 
maximum of energy in the early morning; 
the blood has replaced the waste carried 
away during sleep, and the entire fabric 
stands at the threshold of the day ready 
for anything but the process of digesting 
food. There is no true hunger in the 
morning; habit and appetite are respon- 
sible for the craving felt at that time. 

In much that is written concerning the 
matter of diet there are so many sweeping 
and conflicting statements, impossible 
rules and foolish conclusions that it is no 
wonder that many persons brush the whole 
subject aside as being too complex for 
them. 

The trouble is that there are too many 
who try to enforce their own personal 
ideas upon others in this connection. 
There are the ' 'cranks" who must have 
something to be cranky about in any case, 
and a " crank" who has picked up a little 
scientific jargon and thinks he has cured 



CURE OF DISEASE 113 

himself of something is a very persistent 
person. Then there are those who have 
been really cured of some ailment by a 
diet that happens to suit their individual 
requirements. They go about forever 
afterward finding the same disease symp- 
tom in every one they meet and offering 
the same remedy. There are also the one- 
food people, who are in continual search 
of what not to devour, and who would re- 
duce us all to whole wheat or pecans. 

It is absurd for those who have not 
made themselves familiar with the chem- 
istry of foods to try to talk learnedly of 
their action in human economy, and it may 
be taken as an axiom that within the indi- 
vidual capacity (which can be learned 
only by individual experiment) variety in 
diet is better than monotony. A diet that 
is strictly limited to a few things trains 
the stomach to adapt itself to those few, 
and eventually trouble ensues when 
change is attempted. 



CHAPTER XL 

Bathing and Feesh Air. 

The skin of the human body serves a 
threefold purpose: it protects the tissues; 
it is a sensory organ; and it is an organ 
of elimination. This latter function is all 
important from a health viewpoint, for 
the waste material discharged through 
millions of pores daily is equal in quan- 
tity to a large part of the solid matter 
thrown off through the bowels. The cos- 
tume of civilized man prevents complete 
evaporation, and as a consequence this 
refuse is partly dissipated, partly ab- 
sorbed by the underclothing, and partly 
deposited in dried form on the surface of 
the skin. That great elimination takes 
place from the pores is plainly evident 
during a fast, for body odor is most 
offensive, and the air of a room is quickly 
tainted in spite of frequent bathing on 
the part of the patient. A healthy skin 
is a clean skin, and, while bathing the 

114 



CURE OF DISEASE 115 

outer surface of the body does not neces- 
sarily mean internal cleanliness as well, it 
is a long step towards its attainment. 

There are those to whom the cold water 
bath is a detriment, and in ill health it 
should be indulged in only under direc- 
tion. To be of benefit, it should be fol- 
lowed by immediate reaction, demonstrated 
in warmth and a general sense of exhilar- 
ation. The time for a cold bath is early 
morning, and to those whose vitality is 
equal to the shock, the plunge is the easi- 
est and best method of application. The 
safest way, however, is to use a wet 
towel or a sponge ; and, in case there is 
aversion or shrinking, the water may be 
lowered gradually in temperature from 
tepid to cold. Unless the thought of the 
bath is free from dread of shock, it is 
best to make it tepid. As a cleanser the 
cold bath is of little avail, for it is ordi- 
narily taken without soap, and can remove 
only surface filth. Its effect is simply 
tonic, and in fasting it should never be 
considered except under competent direc- 
tion. 

To cleanse the skin hot water is the 



116 FASTING FOR THE 

only effective agent. The more bodily 
exercise, the more clothing worn, and the 
more food consumed, the more hot baths 
are needed to insure cleanliness. As with 
all things good, moderation and reason 
should enter into its employ, and care 
must be observed lest the relaxation that 
results be not prolonged to the point of 
weakness. In health the skin of the body 
should be cleansed daily so that it may 
continue to perform its functions in a 
normal manner. Personal characteristics, 
however, govern, and no fixed rule can 
be laid down for general observance. 

While fasting, the cold bath may prove 
a too strenuous morning diversion, and 
tepid water must be substituted. But 
each day of abstinence requires a thorough 
cleansing of the whole surface of the body 
with hot water, soap, and the flesh brush 
vigorously applied. At this time the skin 
is eliminating with redoubled energy, and 
the typical odor of body waste, as evi- 
denced in the perspiration, is augmented, 
oftentimes to the disgust of the patient 
himself. Hence the necessity of the daily 
bath is forced upon him reflexively. 



CURE OF DISEASE 117 

In connection with what may be called 
the breathing function of the skin, it is a 
well known fact that, if the surface of the 
body be covered with a medium impervi- 
ous to air, such as gold leaf, death will 
ensue in a short time with all the symp- 
toms of suffocation. Like the lungs, the 
pores utilize oxygen and throw off car- 
bonic acid gas. Woolen underclothing 
with its absorbed perspiration acts in 
every respect as a covering partially im- 
pervious to air, and, while warmth is con- 
served for a time, health suffers. Gar- 
ments of wool worn next to the skin are 
deadly enemies that custom, civilization, 
and climate have raised against natural 
law. Silk or cotton of light weight and 
meshed in texture answer the require- 
ments of both comfort and health. For 
warmth, heavier outer garments suffice. 

The night clothing should consist of 
but one piece as light in weight as is pos- 
sible, and in no conditions should any por- 
tion of the clothes worn during the day 
be permitted to remain in sleep. Bodily 
warmth may be preserved by bed-clothing, 
and it is far better to return to the ancient 



118 FASTING FOR THE 

custom of the " naked bed" than to sleep 
in underclothes. 

Virtually all bodily functions are peri- 
odical in both application and effect. In 
the lower animals this is made quite evi- 
dent, and is well illustrated in the annual 
withdrawal that occurs at the time of 
moulting in fowls, and at the hair-shed- 
ding period in fur-bearing kinds. In man 
and the animal kingdom generally, daily 
renewal of nervous and muscular energy 
is accomplished only at the regularly re- 
curring hours of sleep; and not alone 
does the renewal of nervous and muscular 
energy take place at this time, but the 
whole body and its functions are recuper- 
ated. The processes of assimilation and 
of elimination are most easily performed 
during the healthful relaxation that sleep 
brings ; and, while brain and nerve feeding 
are in progress continuously, the great 
period of rebuilding and of recuperation 
lies in the unconscious moments of peri- 
odical rest. Lost vitality, and with it, 
strength, is restored; and, to the healthy 
man, a night of sleep, when all but the 
involuntary functions are relaxed and at 



CURE OF DISEASE 119 

rest, brings a morning of strength and 
renewed vitality. 

If sleep be necessary in health, it is 
much more essential during a fast; for 
every advantage must be taken of every 
natural aid toward elimination of disease; 
and, in natural therapeutics, rest is all 
important. In some instances, while the 
fast is in progress, sleep is found difficult, 
since at this time there is no digestion, 
and Nature requires shorter intervals to 
recuperate. With smaller draught upon 
nervous energy, nervous and physical fa- 
tigue is greatly lessened; but no alarm 
need be felt, for here insomnia is a legiti- 
mate effect of Nature's law. There are 
also many cases in which sleep is both un- 
disturbed and natural throughout the fast. 

No caution should be necessary to em- 
phasize the oft-repeated direction that 
sleeping apartments must be well venti- 
lated; but, sad to relate, the majority are 
as yet ignorant in the larger sense of the 
therapeutic value of fresh air constantly 
applied. The healthy body fears neither 
cold nor draughts, and it were better that 
every window in the sleeping room be 



120 FASTING FOR THE 

kept open; but at least sufficient communi- 
cation should be had with outside air to 
insure a continuous supply. 

The importance of pure air as an aid to 
health is, of course, based on the great 
law that all purification is the result of 
combustion or oxidation. Of the sub- 
stances furnished body tissue by the blood, 
oxygen is of highest value. Its want is 
soonest felt, for, while muscle has within 
itself a store of this gas, it does not pos- 
sess sufficient to oxidize all that is offered 
in waste. Muscular activity is dependent 
to a great extent on the character of the 
blood supply, which must be clear of 
refuse and must contain oxygen enough to 
insure complete combustion of waste prod- 
ucts. The lungs receive oxygen from the 
air, and deliver it to the blood, from which 
they transfer and exhale carbonic acid 
gas, the product of tissue oxidation. The 
latter is a pungent asphyxiant, which in 
quantities means instant death by suffo- 
cation; and even a small amount has a 
dulling effect upon breathing organisms. 
It will be evident that prompt removal 
and dissipation are necessary for perfect 
functioning and for physical comfort. 



CURE OF DISEASE 121 

In the order of their importance in the 
economy of his body, man needs air, 
sleep, water, food, and exercise. Deprive 
him of oxygen, and death is instantane- 
ous; of sleep, and it is delayed but for a 
time; and each in turn withheld brings 
dissolution in its train. Lack of exercise 
of muscle or of brain results in physical 
or in mental atrophy if long continued; 
but Nature resists to the utmost always, 
and the human body may exist for years 
with little or no physical work. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Medicai, Dogmas. 

When called to see a patient, the first 
act of a school physician is to study the 
symptoms and all conditions underlying 
these signs of disease — the work, the 
worry, the exposure, the unusual strain 
which the subject has sustained. With 
the facts before him, together with what 
he can learn of the man's temperament, 
his tendencies, his vitality, he forms his 
diagnosis. Until the doctor of medicine 
has done these things, he can make no in- 
telligent step towards relief. A diagnosis, 
or a study of symptoms with a view of 
determining the nature of the ailment, is 
the basic move of the medical man; and 
yet, when symptoms and tendencies are 
noted and arranged, what has the physi- 
cian discovered! Not the cause of disease, 
but the sources of the symptoms, and not 
always even these. 

Careful perusal of the foregoing pages, 

122 



CURE OF DISEASE 123 

and careful comparison of personal experi- 
ences with those cited in the text, should 
convince even a prejudiced mind that but 
one cause is primarily responsible for all 
physical ills. The starting point of dis- 
ease is impaired digestive power, with its 
certain sequence, impure blood. If we 
attack the symptoms, we leave the cause 
untouched; our work is incomplete and 
unsatisfactory; we have not assisted Na- 
ture, but have only arrested her process 
of cure. Sooner or later, disease will re- 
assert itself, perhaps in other outward 
form, but still the same in cause and in 
effect. 

Medicine is known as a remedial agent, 
and drugs are, broadly speaking, either 
stimulants or narcotics. The former occa- 
sion great activity in the receptive organs, 
and the latter paralyze the functions. 
Some substances in Nature are harmless 
if introduced into the human body by way 
of the stomach, but are most deadly in 
effect if placed directly in the blood. The 
digestive juices act in the first instance, 
perhaps at once, and neutralize the poison, 
while the liver guards the circulation and 



124 FASTING FOR THE 

separates the toxin wholly or in part from 
nutritive matter. Hypodermically admin- 
istered, no protection is afforded the vital 
organs save that contained in themselves 
and in the blood; and the efforts of lungs 
and heart are very apparent as they act 
upon the drug and attempt its elimination. 
Medicine asserts that certain drugs influ- 
ence certain organs; but a little thought, 
guided by the above exposition, should 
make clear the fact that the organ acts 
upon the drug, which is at once a poison 
and a stimulant. 

In medical dictionaries whole pages are 
devoted to the classification of bacteria 
and of their higher forms, bacilli. These 
living organisms exist in Nature at all 
times and in all places, and their pres- 
ence is assumed to be a menace to the 
health of any individual or of any com- 
munity. Specific remedies for the annihi- 
lation of specific germs are continually 
being sought, and materia medica is 
flooded with lymphs and anti-toxins suffi- 
cient to depopulate the universe. If the 
germ be the real cause of certain disease 
symptoms, why are not all individuals in 



CURE OF DISEASE 125 

whom it is found attacked in the same 
manner? If we are helpless in the grasp 
of any bacillus, none of us can escape, 
since it is ever-present. But, if it be not 
the cause, we must admit an environment, 
a soil for propagation; and herein lies 
the solution of the vexed problem of so- 
called epidemic disease. Destroy the gar- 
den plot in which the growth may multi- 
ply, attack the cause, and the knell of the 
germ is rung. The juices of a normal 
body absolutely prevent the propagation 
of foreign life, except so much as is neces- 
sary for scavenger work, for germ life in 
Nature has its great purpose in policing 
all organisms. Look not then for princi- 
ples destructive to bacteria, but rather 
seek to restore to normal the diseased 
structure of the living body. 

One word here concerning vaccination. 
Back in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century, Dr. Jenner heard a milkmaid re- 
mark that she could never have smallpox, 
for she had caught it previously from a 
cow. Investigating the matter, the doc- 
tor found, or thought he found, that no 
one who had had cowpox ever had small- 



126 FASTING FOR THE 

pox. He did not know anything about 
germs, but lie reasoned much as the germ 
theorists do today, and he inoculated some 
of his friends, and they did not catch the 
smallpox. This proved the theory, and 
he was at once persecuted by the medical 
profession. However, so persistently did 
he plead his cause that vaccination became 
a medical fetich, and it is now upheld, 
with later discoveries just as reasonable 
and just as true, to the everlasting harm 
of those who have had the poison intro- 
duced into healthy veins, and whose trust 
in educated ignorance has not as yet been 
destroyed. 

Whenever man attempts to instruct Na- 
ture or to overturn her methods, it is 
more than probable that his intelligence 
will suffer in the operation. He will dis- 
cover that Nature's laws are immutable, 
and that she reasons eternally from cause 
to effect. In homely terms, she never 
"puts the cart before the horse." Some- 
times in the effort to right conditions that 
are wrong, she produces results that are 
hideous to the sight or painful to the 
nerves ; yet these are but the consequences 



CURE OF DISEASE 127 

of primary disease or impaired digestion. 
Cancers, tumors, hideous running sores, 
excrescences, and deformities, all are but 
attempts on the part of Nature to balance 
the physical scales, and to restore the 
functions to normal; in other words, to 
remove disease. If these efforts are sup- 
pressed in one direction, they will surely 
be asserted in another, perhaps more hide- 
ous, or more painful. Hence the extirpa- 
tion of a growth by knife or otherwise 
does not remove the cause, and makes 
repetition virtually certain. 

In the process of evolution all things 
change, our business methods, our theo- 
ries, and our conceptions. To hold to the 
dead past is to be dead ; to keep step with 
inevitable change is to live. Man's aim 
should be to form a part with new ideals, 
to fashion them into practical things 
whose end is found in the uplift that truth 
discovered and followed gives to civiliza- 
tion. 

The word " science/ ' defined as "to 
know," cannot apply to the practice of 
medicine, for no practitioner on earth can 
foresee the effect of his drug upon sue- 



128 FASTING FOR CURE 

cessive patients. One may be stimulated, 
another stupefied; and these results may 
be interchanged in altered conditions. 
The physician of the future will abandon 
his nostrums; will forsake his symptoms, 
except as local relief can be applied; and 
will devote himself to prevention of dis- 
ease, to the science embodied in the un- 
changing laws of Nature. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Cases Teeated by Fasting. 

The following cases treated by fasting 
are typical but not exhaustive. They are 
selected from a large number solely be- 
cause of their representative character, 
and as evidence that the fast reaches in- 
discriminately but in like manner all 
phases of functional bodily ills. 

E. A., Minneapolis, Minn. Male; 17 
years of age. 

Typical disease symptom known as in- 
flammatory rheumatism. The patient was 
in most precarious condition when first 
seen. His medical adviser had given up 
the case, and had told the distracted 
mother that the disease had "gone to the 
heart," and that it was only a matter of 
a day or two at farthest. All that he 
could do was to ease the pain with opi- 
ates, and thus provide the young man 
with a peaceful passage into eternity. The 
mother had heard of the results accom- 

129 



130 FASTING FOR THE 

plished by fasting, and, as a last resort 
and with doubt in her mind, asked its aid. 
The boy had been in bed for five weeks, 
and his body exhibited all the evidences 
of disease and of the remedies applied. 
His left arm, wrist, and hand were greatly 
swollen and painful, as were also both 
knees and both ankles. The face was 
flushed, the breathing stertorous, the pulse 
fluttering and irregular, and the tempera- 
ture 105 degrees. The working founda- 
tion was flimsy in all respects, for the pre- 
ceding five weeks were worse than lost 
from a natural viewpoint. For two of 
these weeks the heart action had been 
stimulated with doses of digitalis and 
strychnine; food had been forced upon a 
rebellious stomach as many times daily as 
the patient could be induced to swallow; 
and, when pain had become too great to be 
borne or delirium intervened, codein and 
other opiates had been used unsparingly. 
In addition, two quarts of brandy had 
been poured into the drugged interior. As 
the result of drugs and disease, the boy 
could neither lie down nor sit up, and his 
position was a painful compromise. 



CURE OF DISEASE 131 

Death seemed imminent, but food was at 
once withdrawn, every vestige of drugs 
was removed, and a slight massage treat- 
ment was given to equalize the circulation 
as much as was possible in the circum- 
stances. At the end of a half hour, a 
warm water enema brought away a large 
quantity of fecal matter from the colon. 
When treatment concluded, pulse and tem- 
perature showed decided improvement, 
while the patient was resting more quietly 
and easily than he had in a week. 

The second day of the fast was a trying 
one, since the anxiety and fear of the fam- 
ily, as well as the boy's weakness and 
pain, had to be met. In cases of this kind 
drastic measures are necessary, and vig- 
orous application of massage and enema 
brought temperature and pulse to lower 
register once more. The third day the 
swelling in the arm was reduced, and on 
the fifth all pain had ceased; the swelling, 
except in the ankles, was scarcely percep- 
tible ; and, for the first time in weeks, the 
boy was able to lie at length in his bed. 
On this day also he had some hours of 
natural sleep, and temperature and pulse 



132 FASTING FOR THE 

were but slightly above normal. Even 
this small difference was removed by the 
morning of the sixth day. The patient 
received two enemas daily for the first 
week, and great masses of impacted feces 
were removed at each operation. Bathing 
of the body twice each day relieved dis- 
comfort, and after the sixth day tub baths 
were undertaken and proved of assistance 
in the final reduction of filthy internal 
conditions by aiding and increasing elim- 
ination. 

The fast was broken on the eleventh 
day. Bath and massage treatment had 
been invariably succeeded on each of the 
last five days by a natural sleep of some 
hours' duration. In breaking the fast, 
tomato broth was fed morning and eve- 
ning, and the diet was increased as the 
patient became able to take care of the 
addition. Five weeks from the date of 
the first call, the young man was indulging 
in a walk of five miles daily. Since the 
completion of treatment, he has adhered 
strictly to the diet and exercise advised, 
and has developed into a healthy and 
robust youth. 



CURE OF DISEASE 133 

George E. Davis, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Male ; 61 years of age. 

A case of paralysis of the entire right 
side whose history is perhaps better told 
as the patient himself recorded it from 
day to day. His diary follows : 

"Commenced the partial fast August 
15, 1902, with two meals per day, drop- 
ping down to one meal on the 20th. On 
August 21st commenced the absolute fast, 
which lasted forty full days and seven 
hours, ending September 29th. 

August 21. Simply a faint hungry feel- 
ing. 

August 22. An all-gone feeling, but no 
excessive hunger; slight headache, but 
no great discomfort; great belching of 
gas ; slept well until about 2 a. m. 

August 23. Bather weak but not ex- 
cessively hungry; belching continues; 
slept uneasily; mouth very foul and sick- 
ening. 

August 24. Enema in morning relieved 
mouth, and I slept several hours after- 
ward; no hunger, but mouth so bad at 
evening that I took another enema, and 
was relieved in bowels and mouth, which 



134 FASTING FOE THE 

latter was nigh insufferable before the 
enema; slept well until 2:30 a. m. 

August 25. Continued foulness of 
mouth; it is so distressingly foul it makes 
me sick ' ' all over ; ' ' enema at night ; slept 
well part of the night, but restless the 
remainder; weight 214 pounds. Trip in 
street cars very fatiguing. 

August 26. About the same as yester- 
day; feeling very weak; visited Doctor by 
going on street cars. 

August 27. Much better in every way; 
stronger and bad taste is passing away; 
slept fairly well last night; weight 210; 
not hungry since the third day. 

August 28. About the same as yester- 
day with the exception of bad spell dur- 
ing the night; retired at 11 p. m. and 
slept until 3 a. m. ; sat up an hour, went 
to bed again and slept until 6:30. 

August 29. Much the same ; a very bad 
taste in my mouth which makes me quite 
sick; relieved condition somewhat by rins- 
ing mouth with hot water; slept well, but 
took no enema. 

August 30. Better today, but distress- 
ing mouth at night ; no desire whatever 
for food; my only drink is water. 



CURE OF DISEASE 135 

August 31. About the same as yester- 
day ; enema at night always removes quan- 
tity of feces. 

September 1. About the same as yes- 
terday; enema at night removed consider- 
able solid feces. 

September 2. No marked change. 

September 3. A little easier in the 
morning; very bad mouth; weight, 204. 

September 4. Two natural movements 
of the bowels this morning; more vigor- 
ous in general; tongue shows signs of 
cleaning; slept well at night. 

September 5. More vigor; distressing 
mouth at night. 

September 6. Natural movement of 
the bowels in morning; depressed in the 
afternoon and quite weak and sick at the 
stomach; enema brought away consider- 
able feces. 

September 7. Bather depressed and 
weak, especially toward night; much the 
same generally as the day before. 

September 8. Much the same as yes- 
terday; enema at night removed quantity 
of feces. 

September 9. Bright and better in the 



136 FASTING FOR THE 

first part of the day than at any other 
time during the fast, but quite depressed 
and sick at the stomach late in the after- 
noon; slept well at night. 

September 10. Awoke in the morning 
feeling bad; weak all over and bad 
mouth; took light exercise with no appar- 
ent benefit; enema at night with quantity 
of feces ; slept well until 1 a. m., but rest- 
less afterward. 

September 11. Much the same as yes- 
terday, except not quite so distressed; 
weight, 198; slept well first part of the 
night, but no sleep after 1 a. m. ; Mrs. D. 
accompanied me to Doctor's office. 

September 12. Much depressed all 
over, unable to go to the office, Doctor 
calling on me in the evening; bad mouth. 

September 13. Somewhat easier today, 
but still much depressed; mouth in ter- 
rible shape; slept well. 

September 14. Eather uneasy day; 
weak and worse at night; slept until 12 
midnight, but only a little afterward; al- 
most unbearable mouth. 

September 15. Enema at morning and 
night with usual results as to quantity 



CURE OF DISEASE 137 

and color; mouth, throat, and stomach 
bad, but slept well. 

September 16. About a repetition of 
yesterday. 

September 17. Stronger in the fore- 
noon, but bad in the afternoon ; inclination 
to vomit; enema with customary results. 

September 18. Quite weak today; bad 
mouth, very offensive; slept well first 
part of the night, but uneasy afterward. 

September 19. Better in the forenoon, 
but bad in the afternoon; uneasy broken 
sleep at nigut; enema at night with slight 
traces of feces. 

September 20. "Weak and uneasy with 
inclination to vomit; gagging spells, large 
amount of slime in the mouth; slept well. 

September 21. Symptoms continue; in 
bed all day; Doctor visited me in the 
morning; vomited slime of reddish color; 
distress in the stomach ; slept well ; enema, 
no feces. 

September 22. About the same as yes- 
terday; kept to the bed; Doctor came 
morning and evening. 

September 23. Visited the Doctor's of- 
fice, but weak; a bad day; enema at night 



138 FASTING FOR THE 

brought away a quantity of dark foul- 
smelling feces; slept well but awoke in 
the morning gagging. 

September 24. Better today and strong- 
er; weight, 188; bad mouth continues. 

September 25. Felt quite well in the 
morning, but the day developed into the 
worst of the fast thus far ; easier at night ; 
enema with little results; slept well. 

September 26. Somewhat better this 
forenoon, but ill in afternoon; restless 
night; in bed all day. 

September 27. Uneasy and restless all 
day; enema at night with some feces; in 
bed all day. 

September 28. Worst day and night; 
an uneasy gnawing at the stomach, be- 
coming intensified until 1 a. m., and most 
distressing at times; slept after 1 o'clock; 
mouth still bad. 

September 29. Hunger in evidence, 
and on advice of Doctor broke the fast 
with unfermented grape juice. 

From September 29 until October 2 I 
took the following food: One pint of un- 
fermented grape juice; the juice of three 
oranges; one pint of oyster broth; one 



CURE OF DISEASE 139 

large apple; one large sweet potato, 
baked; two slices of whole wheat bread 
with butter; one small dish of Petti John. 
On this food I became stronger, and the 
offensive saliva that had distressed me 
disappeared. I was sleeping well and 
feeling better generally, and the use of 
my muscles had been entirely restored. 
On October 8 my tongue coated again, 
and the offensive saliva reappeared, indi- 
cating that the fast must be continued if 
permanent results were to be obtained, so, 
after a light breakfast, I began the sup- 
plemental fast. 

October 2. Felt strong and well gen- 
erally, except the bad taste in my mouth; 
excessive flow of saliva; great hunger at 
5 a. m. ; slept well. 

October 3. Stronger than at any time 
since the first week of my long fast; 
walked down town twice; excessive flow 
of foul saliva continues, but not so of- 
fensive as before; no hunger. 

October 4. Quite strong in the fore- 
noon, but not so well in the afternoon; 
saliva not so offensive; enema with a 
quantity of feces at night; slept well. 



140 FASTING FOR THE 

October 5. Strong and well in the 
forenoon, but rather weak and depressed 
in the afternoon; foul saliva continues; 
to bed and slept well. 

October 6. About a repetition of yes- 
terday; went walking twice during day; 
enema at night with but a color of feces; 
slept well until 3 a. m. 

October 7. Vomited a quantity of bile 
twice to-day; natural passage from the 
bowels to-night, very foul; slept well un- 
til 4 a. m. 

October 8. Rather weak and depressed 
in the morning; hunger with nausea evi- 
dent; slept well. 

October 9. Hunger plainly in evidence, 
and fast was again broken, this time per- 
manently. Weight, 174. 

A letter written subsequently by Mr. 
Davis is here quoted, since it contains the 
results of the fast in more extended form 
than is covered in the daily record: 

"My Dear Friend: 

"I take this unusual method of com- 
munication because of the long list of 
people to whom I owe letters, and the al- 
most utter impossibility of writing so long 



CURB OF DISEASE 141 

a letter as this to each. You must regard 
it as no less personal because of its 
peculiarity, however. I have passed 
through a remarkable experience, a mere 
outline of which follows. 

"•I reverently give thanks for my re- 
covery to God, the source of all good. 
I am sixty-one years of age. My entire 
right side was completely paralyzed July 
1, 1901. I immediately commenced recov- 
ery, but improvement was substantially 
at a standstill when cold weather came in 
the fall. A temporary advancement came 
and ceased with the unusual warm 
weather of the early spring of 1902, fol- 
lowed by a relapse to about the previous 
condition, which continued without ma- 
terial change to August 15th of last year. 
I was totally incapacitated for active 
manual labor of any kind, living in dread 
of a second stroke, with a strange un- 
natural depression upon slight overexer- 
tion, accompanied by great drowsiness. 
On these occasions I would sleep thirty to 
thirty-six hours, almost without intermis- 
sion. My mentality was impaired, my 
eyesight not fully recovered, and my speech 



142 FASTING FOR THE 

impeded. My right hand and arm were 
clumsy and weak. At this stage all ordi- 
nary human aid was powerless. 

"I commenced a preliminary or partial 
fast on August 15th last, eating two light 
meals daily until the 20th, when I ate one 
light meal only. On August 21st I com- 
menced a full fast, and from that day un- 
til September 29th, forty full days and 
seven hours, I took no nutriment what- 
ever, liquid or solid, and no drugs. Dur- 
ing the next three days I had very little 
nourishment, and then began a supple- 
mental fast of one week, making in all 
fifty days. 

"Contrary to my expectations, I had 
no hunger from the third day to the for- 
tieth. (See Matt. iv. 2.) To affirm that 
there was no inconvenience, however, 
would be untrue, for by every avenue of 
elimination most offensive impurities were 
thrown off, and at times these were most 
unbearable had the object been lost 
sight of. 

"I wish to say just here that I be- 
lieve, without experienced, intelligent, and 
faithful pilotage, I should not have sue- 



CUKE OF DISEASE 143 

ceeded, and I cannot understand how any- 
one else could. Such care and needed en- 
couragement I had from Dr. Linda Bur- 
field (now Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard) 
of this city. With a few exceptions, I 
visited her office daily during my fast, and 
on these exceptions was visited by her. 
Like myself, nearly all who have taken 
this cure are grateful also, under God, 
to Dr. Dewey, of Meadville, Pa., the hon- 
ored promoter of this wonderful system. 
Neither of these physicians administers 
drugs. My weight before the fast was 
228 pounds, and my stomach girth, 45 
inches. At the close of my fast (Octo- 
ber 9, 1902) my weight was 174 pounds, 
and my stomach girth 38y 2 inches. No- 
vember 26th my weight was 184 pounds, 
and my girth 39 inches. At this writing 
(January 15th, 1903) I weigh about the 
same as at latter date. 

"I am cured of paralysis; my mentality 
is clear and normal; my entire digestive 
system is apparently perfect; my vision 
is better than for years; my hand and 
arm are strong; I have no dread of a 
second stroke; I have no sleepy spells; 



144 FASTING FOR THE 

I feel lighter all over ; and, when weary, I 
am quite refreshed and ready for fur- 
ther exertion after a short rest; I feel 
younger, and my neighbors say I look it; 
I have been working in St. Paul, ten 
miles distant, for over a month, traveling 
to and from that city daily ; and I am, 
in every way, more robust than I have 
been since boyhood. 

"My dear friends, who regard human 
physical ailments as proper subjects of 
miraculous interposition only, are referred 
to Matt. ix:12; also Matt. xvii:21. 

"GEOBGE E. DAVIS. 

"Witness: Hereward Carrington. 
"Minneapolis, Minn., January 15, 1903.' ' 

Note. — The case of Mr. Davis is given in full, not 
only because of the interesting" and typical features 
presented, but also because, in a volume dealing" with 
the subject of the fast and recently issued in New 
Tork City, this case and twenty others treated by the 
author have been used and accredited to Hereward 
Carrington, compiler of the work mentioned, and 
witness to the signature of George E. Davis, as 
shown in the text. The author quotes from a letter 
written February 29, 1908, to the publishers of the 
book: 

"Several days ago I received from Mr. Hereward 
Carrington of New York City complete proofs of a 
volume purporting to come from his pen, and to be 
published by your company. In addressing you thus, 
I am actuated by a feeling of justice towards myself 



CURE OF DISEASE 145 

F. K., Montana. Female; age, 28. 

Disease symptom, locomotor ataxia, with 
general derangement of the motor nerves. 

This case arrived for treatment on the 
21st of September, 1905, and remained 
under care and observation until Decem- 
ber 13th, 1905. After a short period of 
dieting, the patient was placed upon the 
absolute fast, which continued for twenty- 
two days and ended with the return of 



and towards the cause to which I have devoted the 
past eleven years of my life. 

"Mr. Carrington was employed by me as my clerk 
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from November, 1902, to 
March, 1903. In his published work, the cases cited 
are, with few exceptions, those of patients treated by 
me prior to or at the time that he was in my employ. 
He never so much as assisted in any way in the 
treatment of any case, and his sole knowledge of the 
work was obtained by observation and by compilation 
of the notes given him by the writer for her own 
records. On his departure, he abstracted copies from 
these latter, and his detailed memoranda of the cases 
mentioned are from these notes. 

"He has seen fit to ignore the writer's individual 
labors in handling the cases referred to, and yet 
mentions them by name or by easily recognized 
initials. The addresses are now cited in full, so that 
the statements may be verified should you so elect." 

The addresses then follow. 

In quoting the letter that Mr. Davis wrote to his 
friends after recovery, Mr. Carrington was most 
careful to omit the paragraph in which Mr. Davis ex- 
presses his gratitude to both Dr. Dewey and the 
author. 



146 FASTING FOR THE 

hunger and a complete restoration to 
health. 

The medical history of the case showed 
obstinate constipation for twenty years, 
and very nervous tendencies that had been 
continually aggravated for four years 
previous to the fast. Medical attendance 
had been constant since the year 1900. 
When first seen the muscles controlling 
legs, hands, arms, and face were in con- 
tinuous motion, and no effort of the will 
could control their actions. During the 
first week of the fast improvement was 
such that the young woman was able to 
walk about the grounds surrounding the 
house, and by the fourteenth day all mus- 
cular evidence of nervousness had disap- 
peared. The fast was continued twenty - 
two days. 

No unusual symptoms developed in this 
case ; the enemas brought away solid mat- 
ter until the seventeenth day, and there- 
after but a small quantity of bilious fluid. 
Osteopathic manipulation was daily ap- 
plied, and the loss in weight was not re- 
markable. There were almost no unpleas- 
ant symptoms, and for this a regular out- 



CURE OF DISEASE 147 

door life and an equable disposition and 
temperament are largely responsible. 
After a time devoted to judicious exer- 
cise, the patient was dismissed, completely 
restored in general health, and with no 
signs whatever of her nervous disorder 
of former days. This case also showed 
decided impairment of sight, myopic in 
form; the patient was able to dispense 
with spectacles six weeks after the com- 
pletion of the fast. 

H. P., Washington. Female; age 29. 

Disease symptom, epilepsy. 

This case was under treatment from 
July 19, 1907, until October 3, 1907. Be- 
fore undertaking the fast the patient had 
been tentatively practicing a diet and had 
noticed decided improvement in general 
health, but no cessation in the attacks 
characteristic of the disease symptom 
named. Medical attendance had been con- 
tinuous in this case for ten years, and 
no improvement had occurred, but rather 
the reverse, for the epileptic seizures had 
increased in number and in severity as 
time went by. When the fast began the 
attacks were recurring at intervals of two 



148 FASTING FOR THE 

weeks, and the latest seizure had hap- 
pened three days before. An absolute fast 
of fifty-six days comprised the principal 
treatment, and from the moment it began 
to the present writing (July, 1908) not a 
single attack has occurred, and the gen- 
eral health of the patient is better than it 
ever has been in her twenty -nine years. 

The fast in this case is remarkable for 
several things, one of which is the fact 
that on every one of the fifty-six days the 
patient walked to the office of the author, 
a distance of more than a mile, and re- 
turned to her home after treatment; an- 
other, that on the fortieth day of absti- 
nence a large mass of dead intestinal 
worms passed from the bowels after the 
enema. Improvement was constant from 
the first, but after the evacuation of these 
parasites it was most rapid, and hunger 
was in evidence on the fifty-fifth day. 

Before the fast the patient weighed 
134 pounds, and at its end she had lost 
thirty pounds, an average decrease. Three 
weeks after eating was resumed normal 
had been gained; and two months later 
Miss P. married, an event that had been 



CURE OF DISEASE 149 

postponed for five years in the hope that 
relief from physical conditions could be 
found. 

F. 0., Washington. Female; age, 46. 

The medical history of this case shows 
constant treatment since the year 1871 
for the disease symptom known as diffuse 
psoriasis. At the time that the patient 
turned to natural methods, January 15, 
1908, the patches characteristic of the 
symptom covered at least one-third of the 
surface of her skin, and were not con- 
fined to any locality, but appeared indis- 
criminately on trunk, arms, and legs. 
Hands, face, and feet were not affected. 
At this date the conditions were much ag- 
gravated, and the sores were exuding 
serum and were itching intolerably. 

In order to enjoy life in previous years 
Mrs. 0. had discovered through medical 
attempts to relieve that the sores could be 
dried and the itching be alleviated by mer- 
curial sweat baths. For a week or there- 
abouts after treatment of this kind the 
symptoms remained dormant, but only to 
reappear more angry and more obstinate. 

The general health of the patient seemed 



150 FASTING FOR THE 

excellent, and to this a strong constitu- 
tion and a robust physique contributed. 
Perhaps, as often occurs, the outlet that 
Nature established in this instance was 
most salutary in so far as the appearance 
of other disease symptoms was concerned. 
The author knows this to be the fact in 
syphilitic infection, for all outward evi- 
dences of disease are invariably subordi- 
nated to the direct blood taint. 

When first under observation Mrs. 0. 
weighed 172 pounds, and her habits were 
those of a woman in comfortable circum- 
stances, with the idea ingrained that three 
and even four generous meals a day were 
necessary for the maintenance of health 
and strength. She was, however, discour- 
aged and disheartened on account of her 
skin trouble; and, as a last resort, con- 
sidered what to her meant a living death, 
the fast. 

After three weeks of dieting, the period 
of abstinence began on February 15, and 
continued until April 20, inclusive, a total 
of seventy-five days. At no time during 
this interval was any food ingested, and 
at no time was the patient unable to walk 



CURE OF DISEASE 151 

to the office of the author for daily osteo- 
pathic treatment. This was undoubtedly 
due to her magnificent physical organiza- 
tion, and to a will power that was equal 
to the supreme test. The case was a most 
easy one to treat, for, with the gradual 
disappearance of disease, faith grew, and 
opposition died. 

The fast was typical, and not extraordi- 
nary save for its length. The loss in 
weight was normal and registered 32 
pounds on the seventy-fifth day, when 
Mrs. 0. balanced the scale at 142 pounds. 
Faster 's chilliness was in evidence until 
the twentieth day; and, while pulse and 
temperature were below register in the 
earlier stages, they reached normal by 
the sixth week. The enemas brought away 
solid feces until the twenty-fifth day, and 
thereafter great quantities of yellowish- 
white mucus until the last week of absti- 
nence. 

It was not until about the fourth week 
that visible improvement in the exuding 
sores became evident in any degree. The 
itching subsided with the cessation of exu- 
dation, and here amelioration was noted 



152 FASTING FOR THE 

at the end of the third week of the fast. 
From the latter part of March until hun- 
ger appeared the inflamed areas rapidly 
dried, and healthy skin formed in patches 
that grew and gradually covered the de- 
nuded spots. 

After eating was resumed Mrs. O.'s 
general health became superb, and the 
sole remaining signs of former disease 
were the scarred edges surrounding the 
later areas. These gradually disappeared, 
and today no trace save slight discolora- 
tion, the result of previous medical treat- 
ment, is left to evidence the frightful dis- 
figurement of earlier years. 

At no time during the long period of 
abstinence was alarm felt as to the out- 
come either by the patient or by the 
author. In the absence of organic imper- 
fections, there is positively no danger in 
fasting until Nature indicates the end 
with hunger. It is because of ignorance 
of the physiology and of the philosophy 
of the method that fear enters and dis- 
aster results in cases not properly guided. 

E. F., Mo. Female; age, 34. Bedrid- 
den one year. Weight, 85. 



CURE OF DISEASE 153 

This case suffered from a mechanical 
defect in the dorsal vertebras, two of 
them having been displaced in such 
manner as to pinch the spinal cord, and 
to cause paralysis of the lower trunk and 
legs. The fast was undertaken for the 
relief of general disease resulting from 
years of wrong living and overeating. 
In fact, the slipped vertebras were directly 
due to malnutrition of the dorsal muscles. 
The patient had never in her life known 
perfect health, and intermittently in earlier 
days there had developed severe fevers 
which finally created contractions in the 
descending colon, a condition that caused 
constipation and consequent septicemia. 
At the time noted a congestive chill of 
more than ordinary severity indicated that 
drastic measures were necessary; and, 
while preparation was not complete, the 
fast was begun and continued for fifty- 
eight days. 

The medical history of this case showed 
inherited scrofula, but it had never been 
diagnosed as such. There had been mani- 
fested at intervals offensive running sores, 
and the thumb and the index finger of the 



154 FASTING FOR THE 

left hand had been amputated because of 
a non-healing abscess. This and similar 
ulcers were without exception diagnosed 
by the attending physicians as tubercular 
in character, and had been treated accord- 
ingly. 

On the second day of the fast an abscess 
broke through the surface of the skin at 
the base of the spine immediately over 
the sacrum. The discharge was most pro- 
fuse and offensive, and the area affected 
spread until it was at least three inches 
in diameter, and its depth was such that 
the periosteum of the sacrum became ex- 
posed in ten days after the sore appeared. 

For the first week hot applications were 
continuously laid, and the gangrenous 
material was carefully cauterized by fo- 
cusing the rays of the sun upon the ulcer 
with an ordinary reading glass. By the 
tenth day the discharge had ceased to be 
offensive, and several days later healthy 
granulation began. At the end of fifty- 
eight days of abstinence a circular spot 
of slightly reddish normal skin with a 
subjacent cushion of healthy flesh pro- 
claimed the fact that Nature's work of 



CURE OF DISEASE 155 

repair had progressed in spite of the 
absence of food. This is the great point 
to be observed in the treatment of this 
case, whose blood had been poisoned and 
repoisoned for years by constant addi- 
tions to accumulated food rubbish. Once 
elimination could proceed undisturbed, 
Nature was able not only to cast out im- 
purity, but also to repair diseased tissue 
from the small store of healthy material 
husbanded in this slight body. 

The results of the copious daily enemas 
were remarkable for their exceeding foul- 
ness, and for the great quantity of black 
bilious fluid that was brought away until 
the thirtieth day of the fast. The loss in 
weight was not extraordinary, the patient 
weighing 65 pounds after fifty-eight days 
without food. While the mechanical diffi- 
culty mentioned was not wholly relieved 
at the completion of the fast, the general 
health of the patient was such as to put 
her a long distance toward recovery. In 
concluding the history of this case, the 
author would again call attention to the 
healing of a scrofular abscess to the point 
of complete and healthy closure while the 
fast was in progress. 



156 FASTING FOR THE 

A. L., Washington. Female; age, 28. 

Poor nutrition and what is called a 
bilious temperament, aggravated by a diet 
composed largely of meat, brought on a 
condition that manifested itself physically 
in periodical headaches, and mentally in 
melancholia with violent tendencies, which, 
but for the care and devotion of a sister, 
would have placed the patient in an asylum 
long before coming under observation. 
The physician last consulted had recom- 
mended that she be confined, when the 
sister, almost in despair, turned to the 
fast. 

Examination showed a pulse continually 
at 128, and temperature that varied from 
above to below normal with no apparent 
cause. Diet was at once changed to 
liquids, and daily enemas were rigorously 
plied, while hot towel packs were used on 
the spine to control circulation and to 
steady the pulse. After a short time these 
were discontinued, for these functions 
showed constant improvement from the 
first. The enemas brought away black, 
foul-smelling discharges, which did not 
cease until the latter part of the fast. 



CURE OF DISEASE 157 

The patient showed great vitality 
throughout the entire fast, and daily 
walked a distance of two miles, took osteo- 
pathic treatment, and returned to her 
home without undue fatigue. She fasted 
forty-two days, and toward the end she 
was able and desirous to increase the 
amount of exercise. Her mental condi- 
tion showed a tendency to mend from the 
beginning of the fast, and on its thirtieth 
day the young woman helped her sister 
to do the housework, performing her part 
of the labor well and cheerfully. Hunger 
returned on the forty-first day, and the 
fast was broken on the morning of the 
forty-third day. Two weeks later the 
sisters sailed from Montreal for their 
home in Sweden, and a letter written by 
the patient since her arrival abroad shows 
a mind in every way sane and rational. 
The sister also writes that the young 
woman is both physically and mentally 
whole, and that she does not know of 
any one so happy as both she and her sis- 
ter are over the outcome of the case. 

G. W. T., Philadelphia, Pa. Male; 
age, 47. 



158 FASTING FOR THE 

Paralyzed on right side and had shown 
signs of insanity. Medical history ex- 
hibited habitual constipation, periodical 
headaches, and prolonged bilious attacks. 
Began fast, June 24, 1902, and continued 
for twenty days, when it was thought well 
to break at weight 100. Results : No head- 
aches; bowels regular; paralysis, greatly 
improved; a steady gain in flesh and 
strength on diet after the fast. Second 
fast begun in September, 1902, at weight 
105, and continued for full forty-one days. 
Patient came to office daily, and showed 
constant improvement from the first. 
Weight on breaking second fast, 72 
pounds. No special symptoms to be 
noted. Paralysis entirely eradicated and 
general health excellent two months after 
completion of second fast, which ended 
with return of hunger. At this time, also, 
the patient had regained his normal 
weight of 145 pounds, at which he stood 
at the beginning of the preliminary fast. 



Note. — This case is also one of those used in the 
volume mentioned in connection with the fast of 
George E. Davis. The account of the case is defective 
in that Hereward Carrington, the compiler of the 
volume, was not able to obtain the history of the 



CURE OP DISEASE 159 

L. H., Illinois. Female; age, 32. Dis- 
ease symptom, tuberculosis. 

This patient fasted for twenty-four 
days, but was on diet and under treatment 
for six months, inclusive of the fast. When 
first under observation, examination of 
sputum showed quantities of bacilli; both 
lungs were affected; chills with fever oc- 
curred daily in afternoon; all typical 
symptoms of a fully developed case of the 
disease symptom named. Weight at be- 
ginning of fast, 112 pounds. After low 
diet for several weeks, the fast was be- 
gun and continued for twenty-four days 
with no unfavorable signs whatever. 
From the first excessive discharge of 
sputum occurred, which gradually lessened 
until evidences of the return of hunger 
appeared, and which showed at the sev- 



preliminary fast, since he was not at the time in the 
employ of the author of this text. Mr. T. resorted 
to the fasting method of cure through the recom- 
mendation of the then editor of The Liberator, of 
Minneapolis, Minn., Mrs. Lora C. Little, by whom the 
facts here stated and those in the Davis case may 
easily be verified. 

The cuts used by Mr. Carrington to illustrate his 
point, "On the verge of skeletonism," are portraits of 
G. W. T., taken at the request of the author at her 
expense, and later obtained from the photographer by 
Mr. Carrington. 



160 FASTING FOR THE 

eral periodical examinations during the 
fast progressive decrease in the number 
of bacilli. The enemas were always loaded 
with bile and with old feces, and these 
products disappeared only during the last 
week of the fast. Chills and fever van- 
ished by the fourteenth day, and when the 
sputum was examined on the twenty-sec- 
ond day of abstinence it showed no trace 
of bacilli. The general health of the pa- 
tient was marked by constant improve- 
ment after the fast was broken. 

J. H., Kentucky. Male ; age, 34 ; weight, 
228. Disease symptom (medical diag- 
nosis), heart disease. 

As stated, this case was diagnosed med- 
ically as valvular heart disease, and no 
hope was offered for recovery. There was 
great pain in the regions of the heart, 
stomach, and liver, and at times in the 
abdomen. The heart missed one beat in 
every three; and, in view of the serious- 
ness of the patient's condition, the fast 
was begun without preparation, and imme- 
diately upon coming under observation. 
Enormous quantities of black bilious fluid 
came away with every enema, of which 



CURE OF DISEASE 161 

four were administered daily throughout 
the fast. Excruciating pain and nervous 
excitement were in evidence until the twen- 
tieth day, when at least a teacupful of gall 
stones was evacuated with the contents 
of the enema. These continued to be 
passed until the thirtieth day of the fast, 
which was broken on the morning of its 
thirty-fifth day. Weight at completion, 
174 pounds. There was great chilliness in 
the early part of this fast, but tempera- 
ture and pulse reached normal by the 
twentieth day. Before this the latter had 
been at times above, at times below regis- 
ter, and in either case the sensation of 
chill was present. From the breaking of 
the fast all functions became and con- 
tinued normal; weight was gained grad- 
ually, and at this writing (June, 1908) 
stands at 185 pounds, or normal for pa- 
tient's height and build; there have been 
no unfavorable symptoms since the com- 
pletion of the fast, a period of eighteen 
months, and the general health of Mr. H. 
is better than ever before in his life. 

A. L., Iowa. Male; age 45. Digestive 
derangements, diagnosed medically as 
chronic dyspepsia. 



162 FASTING FOR THE 

This patient fasted forty-nine days, and 
from the first day until the forty-fifth day 
of this period was not able to leave his 
bed. At this date the tongue cleaned as if 
by magic; hunger returned and with it 
strength; and, on the forty-ninth day, 
when the fast was broken, the patient was 
able to walk a distance of seventeen city 
blocks with but little fatigue. No unusual 
symptoms excepting the weakness men- 
tioned developed during abstinence; and, 
from the breaking of the fast, improve- 
ment was constant and permanent. 

F. N., Washington. Female; age 41. 
Disease symptoms, obesity and functional 
heart disease. Weight, 200 pounds. 

The medical history of this case shows 
an operation for salpingitis. The patient 
was most robust, and was able to attend 
to her home duties and to visit the au- 
thor's office daily throughout her long 
fast of sixty-three days. There were but 
little faster 's chilliness and no unusual 
symptoms. In this case there was gain 
in weight about the period included with- 
in the thirtieth and thirty-fifth days of 
from one to one and one-quarter pounds 



CURE OF DISEASE 163 

daily, after which the gradual decrease 
continued until the end of the fast. Weight 
at the end of fast was 140 pounds, and 
thereafter the gain was gradual until 154 
pounds was reached, the normal weight for 
height and build. 

4 E. H., Washington. Male; age, 40. 
Medical diagnosis, cancer of the stomach. 

The patient was suffering from a badly 
congested condition of stomach and upper 
intestines, and underwent a fast of fifty 
days with no extraordinary symptoms ; he 
came to office every day for osteopathic 
manipulation ; and, from 145 pounds in 
weight at beginning of fast, he was re- 
duced to 105 pounds at completion. The 
subsequent gain in weight and strength 
was normal, and at two months from the 
breaking^ of the fast he weighed 170 
pounds. 

Y. B., female; age, 19. C. M. ; female; 
age, 27. A. E. ; male; age, 40. 

These cases are all typical of the disease 
symptom, appendicitis, and were fasted 
thirty-two, fourteen, and thirty-four days 
respectively. Appendicitis yields most 
easily to the fast, and needs no assistance 



164 FASTING FOR THE 

other than that which complete rest of the 
digestive system and constant application 
of the enema afford. Pain ceased in all of 
the cases cited, and fever was reduced by 
the end of the third day. The fast in each 
instance was continued for perfect results 
and for the general physical welfare of the 
patients. 

Gr. W. S., Minnesota. Male; age, 45. 
Paralysis. 

This case fasted a total of 117 days in 
a period of 141 days, the intervals being 
occupied in light dieting. While the re- 
sults, so far as the paralyzed condition of 
the patient was concerned, were most fa- 
vorable, the care of the man finally de- 
volved upon the county in which he re- 
sided, and it was deemed best not to 
pursue the treatment. The case is cited in 
order to place on record the remarkable 
ratio of days fasting to days feeding de- 
veloped by a bed-ridden man, whose 
weight was but 85 pounds at the begin- 
ning of treatment, and was reduced to 75 
at its end. In this case, also, an obstinate 
bedsore of two years' standing yielded to 
the fast, grew a covering of healthy skin, 
and never reappeared. 



CURE OF DISEASE 165 

A. J., Iowa. Female; age, 38. Disease 
symptom, Bright ? s disease with obesity. 
Weight, 285 pounds. 

Fasted sixty days with most rapid re- 
duction in weight, which stood at 137 
pounds at completion. No unusual symp- 
toms. In two months had regained weight 
to 150, and has balanced the scales at that 
figure since. One year after the end of 
the fast the patient gave birth to her first 
child, an event that had been devoutly 
hoped for throughout her married life of 
twenty years. In fact, Mrs. J. had never 
before been pregnant. 

The cases cited in this chapter are de- 
scribed with as little technical language 
as possible, and are given to exhibit the 
variety of symptoms treated, all of which 
revert to the fundamental principle dwelt 
upon and emphasized in the text, that 
there is but one disease, impure blood; 
that its sole cause is impaired digestion; 
and that any and all of its symptoms, be- 
cause they are results of the same cause, 
will yield to the remedy indicated and pre- 
scribed by Nature itself. 



166 



FASTING FOE CURE 



Faster ? s chilliness, referred to in a num- 
ber of instances, does not necessarily con- 
vey the idea that temperature in these 
cases was below normal. It is simply a 
condition of sensation, and is due to the 
absence of food stimulation as described 
previously. In many of these and in other 
instances, however, temperature was below 
register; but, just as in fever, the fast 
invariably restores the condition to nor- 
mal. 

The following is a table exhibiting losses 
in weight in fasts of varying lengths. The 
average, it will be seen, approximates 
one pound daily. 





Wt. at 


Wt. at 


Days 


Loss 




Beginni'g 


End. , 


Fast'd 


Wt. 


1. Geo. E. Davis. . . 


228 


174 


50 


54 


2. Mrs. I. Matthews 


150 


123 


22 


27 


3. Rev. N. H. Lohre 


178 


165 


10 


13 


4. Prf. F.Woodward 


182 


158 


20 


24 


5. Mr. J. Burrows. ., 


165 


154 


23 


11 


6. Mrs. J. Burrows. 


135 


127 


8 


8 


7. Mr, G. W. Tuthill 


108% 


72% 


41 


36 


8. Mrs. P.J. Conklin 


136 


103 


28 


33 


9. Mrs. T.Armstrong 


117 


92 


34 


25 


10. Robert Burfield.. 


135 


118 


17 


17 


Totals 


1534% 


1286% 


253 


248* 



* i. e., 248 pounds of effete, diseased material elim- 
inated ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Criticism. 

The subject matter presented in this 
volume is purely the result of experience 
and observation extending over twelve 
years of practice and including to the date 
of writing over 1,100 cases of continuous 
fasts. And whenever in the text the word 
"fast" is used, total abstinence from food 
of all kinds is meant. Experience such as 
this is vastly different from the attempts, 
more or less earnest it is true, of fanatic- 
ally inclined devotees of "nature cures" 
or of "physical culture institutes," and a 
few remarks concerning ignorant but 
sophistical criticism of the method seem 
fitting at this point. 

Most of the criticism referred to finds 
expression in alarm at the thought that 
almost every community has its fasting en- 
thusiasts today, but the knowledge upon 
which true criticism is based is almost 
altogether absent in the arguments ad- 

167 



168 PASTING FOE THE 

vanced in opposition. An intelligent ap- 
preciation of the physiology of fasting is 
rarely discovered, and confusion is the 
result of putting the simple question, 
1 ' What do you know about it?" 

The great point at issue in the better 
class of comment on the fast is the risk 
attendant upon its application. As a mat- 
ter of fact, there is no risk whatever in a 
properly conducted fast, and the text fully 
demonstrates this fact. Fasting will not 
and cannot save a system organically im- 
perfect; but in functional disease, if there 
be risk at any time or in any degree, it 
lies at the moment that the fast is broken, 
and here is where guidance is necessary. 
The greatest obstacle in the treatment is 
found in causing peristaltic action in the 
small intestine sufficient to evacuate its 
contents into the colon, and guidance and 
assistance is needed for this as well. In 
the progress of the fast symptoms de- 
velop and disappear from day to day, and 
no two individuals express like signs at 
regular intervals. Each case has its own 
peculiarities, both during the period of 
abstinence and after its completion. 



CUEE OF DISEASE 169 

Statements that would be absurd did 
they not emanate from members of an 
educated and cultured profession are met 
with daily when the fast is discussed. 
One such of recent date asserts: "It 
should be remembered that when food is 
withdrawn the body does not cease to eat, 
but proceeds to consume its own tissue/' 
The author of this remark is by inference 
unaware that the sole process carried on 
in the body after a certain period of fast- 
ing is that of elimination. This is true of 
all tissues and organs with the exceptions 
of the brain and nerve centers and the 
nerve substance. In all the autopsies con- 
ducted by the writer, when death had oc- 
curred in the fast, the brain completely 
filled the brain cavity; its structure 
showed no loss or deterioration; and 
microscopic section exhibited no defects 
that might be attributed to abstinence 
from food. In five distinct cases of cancer 
of the stomach treated medically, dissec- 
tion of the brain showed no waste in brain 
tissue, although the greatest emaciation 
was evident in body tissue and in the 
organs. In these instances death had oc- 



170 FASTING FOR THE 

curred after periods in which no food had 
been ingested for from four to ten weeks. 

The enema is assailed by physician and 
layman alike, and on various grounds. The 
great fact to be kept in mind is the realiza- 
tion of the predominance of elimination in 
the fast. Peristaltic action is sluggish, 
and time must be devoted to bathing and 
to the enema in order to rid the system 
of matter cast off, and to prevent reab- 
sorption. The advanced faster never al- 
lows refuse to collect to such degree as to 
act as soil for the propagation of germs. 
The colon is completely cleansed daily and 
more often several times daily. 

The business of Nature, although accom- 
plished through complicated organisms, is 
extremely simple in the fundamentals. But 
we often hear of diagnoses that lead the 
patient to believe that his days are num- 
bered, and that his disease symptoms are 
those that accompany speedy death. More 
often than not, some one of the eliminating 
organs in these cases is performing the 
task that its brothers should do, but which 
they refuse because they are clogged and 
cannot. Attention to the liver saves the 



CURE OF DISEASE 171 

kidneys, and an unclogged alimentary 
canal relieves the liver at once of most 
of its burdens. One of the simplest visi- 
ble instances of elimination is found in 
the coat deposited upon the tongue. In 
health as defined medically a clear tongue 
is seldom in evidence with a full stomach. 
Ordinarily here stimulation dominates 
elimination. A foul tongue is the result 
of Nature's attempt to eliminate impuri- 
ties from the system, nothing more nor 
less. Some writers assert that the tongue 
becomes clean and remains so because in 
health the saliva is a natural germicide 
destroying the germ and the coating with 
it. But germicide though the saliva may 
be, it cannot at any time destroy the soil 
in which bacilli flourish. In disease, Na- 
ture attempts to eliminate, then to elimi- 
nate some more, and then to eliminate 
again until the clogged avenues of vitality 
and energy are cleared, and health is re- 
stored. The tongue, in common with the 
rest of the organs and glands, receives its 
deposit of refuse, and not until elimination 
is complete and all the body waste evacu- 
ated does it reach the perfectly clean and 



172 FASTING FOR THE 

pink state that is its normal condition. 
This is one of the unfailing signs of a 
complete and successful fast; and hun- 
ger, natural hunger, invariably accom- 
panies this symptom. 

In fasting for tuberculosis, during the 
first days, typical sputum is discharged, 
and saliva in abundance is also present. 
In tests of both saliva and sputum carried 
on throughout the process of treatment, 
and made every third day, the bacilli show 
constant decrease, until when the tongue 
clears there are no sputum and no bacilli, 
and saliva is normal. Can one believe 
that the saliva had aught to do with the 
disappearance of the germs? Is it not a 
more rational solution to think that with 
the soil for propagation gone, the organ- 
ism finds no further use for the body, and 
can no longer exist? 

Opponents of fasting for the cure of 
disease have not hesitated to make capital 
of the fact that its most prominent advo- 
cate, Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, died as 
the result of a paralytic stroke, and not 
from old age. It is just as well to state 
the facts in the case, and these are cited 



CURE OP DISEASE 173 

from letters personal and otherwise now 
in possession of the author. 

The Morning Star, Meadville, Pa., De- 
cember 22, 1904, says: "The not unex- 
pected death of Dr. Edward Hooker 
Dewey occurred at 10 o'clock Wednesday 
morning at his residence on Park Avenue. 
He had been ill since March 28 of the 
present year, sustaining a paralytic stroke 
on that date while standing in front of his 
residence. 

" Deceased was born at Mead Corners 
(now Wayland) May 21, 1839. " 

The above, which is correct, shows Dr. 
Dewey to have been 65 years old at the 
time of his death, and in view of long and 
almost vicious opposition to the methods 
he espoused, and of strenuous endeavor in 
the cause of humanity, his was a ripe 
old age. 

Dr. Dewey suffered his first stroke of 
paralysis on March 28, 1904, and a second 
one on December 10, 1904, the latter re- 
sulting in his death on December 21, 1904. 
After the second stroke internal convul- 
sions occurred. 

His illness and approaching death are 



174 FASTING FOR THE 

best told as his son, Mr. A. J. Dewey, has 
set them down in a personal letter of date 
December 16, 1904: 

"Father had a sinking spell on Tuesday 
night and I was called up. The doctor in 
attendance said he thought he couldn't live 
through last night, but he did. It is such a 
wonderful fight. He seemed easy this 
morning, and I went to the office only to 
be summoned by 'phone. They thought he 
wouldn't get through another hour, but 
again he rallied. I came to the office this 
afternoon, and am in hourly dread of an- 
other message. I don't understand those 
internal convulsions. It was nearly five 
hours before they ceased entirely on Sun- 
day last. As you know, father fasted the 
first sixteen days last spring, ivhen the 
attach came on, but since then he has had 
tivo meals a day. I will mail this at once 
and a postal card will follow to tell you 
the time of his end. It seems to me it is 
only a question of hours. I never knew a 
character like his. His was a vast under- 
standing, so kind, so considerate, so pa- 
tient. It took a great mind to get the 
philosophy of the ' No-Breakfast Plan,' but 



CURE OF DISEASE 175 

a greater to see the 'why' of the fasting 
cure. He did both. He was never aught 
but a kindly, unassuming gentleman." 

It will be seen from this account that 
Dr. Dewey, from about two weeks after his 
first seizure, was not under treatment by 
the method he himself advocated; that he 
had each day two meals ; and that when he 
died the inference is obvious he died with 
a full stomach and not fasting. His case 
was in the hands of a medical practitioner 
of Meadville, Pa., and was medically 
treated. 

The physiology of fasting as given by 
Dr. Dewey in his works on the subject is 
beyond all doubt correct; but on the 
dietetics and hygiene of the treatment he 
was hopelessly astray. He did not accept 
the enema, nor did he realize that daily 
cleansing of the surface of the body is of 
paramount importance. His own diet at 
times included meat, and the story of his 
last illness establishes the fact that fasting 
in its real sense played no part. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Conclusion. 

The very simplicity of the fasting treat- 
ment is the greatest obstacle to its ad- 
vancement. It is so simple that it is 
difficult. In developing natural methods 
for the cure of disease, one fact is evi- 
dent, — the general public displays little 
thought on the care of the body, and less 
on the relief of bodily ills. Some one has 
said that, speaking from an evolutionary 
standpoint, but about five per cent, of the 
cells of the average brain are ever used 
in thought. Observation shows the truth 
of the statement; and, in matters con- 
nected with hygiene, the percentage is 
reduced to a fraction of one. 

It is true that there are cases in which 
the fast brings wretched moments to the 
hapless followers of wrong living in past 
days. But housecleaning is never a pleas- 
ant operation. To the thoughtless mind 
this simple remedy that almost instinc- 

176 



CURE OF DISEASE 177 

tively suggests itself carries no appeal. 
Its tangibility is doubted, and it is void of 
bolus. 

In assisting Nature no physician is 
necessary; but until superstitious doc- 
trines, born in ignorance and fostered in 
intellectual indifference, disappear a guide 
is needed to teach the patient to think, to 
know that his recovery depends upon and 
is in his own mind. He can do it if he will, 
and when he wills he gives the Great 
Mother the chance she seeks. 

Convincing the patient is only half the 
battle, for relatives and friends assail him 
with jeers and ridicule. Therefore, since 
peace of mind and quiet environment con- 
duce most strongly to successful issue, it 
is best to move from anxious but mistaken 
friends, leaving them to await results that 
prove the wisdom of conviction. 

Truth moves at slow pace but with irre- 
sistible momentum, and Nature is truth. 
Her laws are transgressed with seeming 
impunity for a time, but jeers and railing 
do not prevent their cumulative effects 
from announcing themselves in due course 
of events. When that dav comes those 



178 FASTING FOR THE 

who came to scoff remain to pray, and no 
conversion is comparable to that of a soul 
bred in superstition but born again to 
truth. 

The great public heart is dominated at 
all times by fear of disease and death, 
which again is a stupendous barrier to 
surmount on entering natural fields. It 
may well be asked whether it is possible 
that, after thousands upon thousands of 
life years, man is still so ignorant of the 
body that carries his divine spark as not 
to know and to distinguish between cause 
and effect in its treatment and care. When 
disease symptoms are manifested, not in- 
stinctively, but through inherited and edu- 
cated terror at the thought of death, the 
heart stands still and man is helpless 
in the grip of unreasoning dread of dis- 
solution. He looks to his physician for 
aid, and he receives advice based on trans- 
mitted ignorance and superstition. He is 
dosed with a symptom-killing drug, and 
when Nature in spite of it throws aside 
the fever or the pain, he imagines himself 
cured and goes rejoicing on his way. But 
not for long, for pay-day cannot always 



CURE OF DISEASE 179 

be postponed, and the debt is only adding 
interest to principal. 

Fasting is, in itself, but a means to an 
end, a cleansing and resting process that 
prepares the body for right living in 
future time. The cure is not an accom- 
plished fact until the individual, co-operat- 
ing with Nature, completes what the fast 
began. 

Into the hearts of those who have the 
courage of their convictions, who have 
deserted the ranks marshaled under the 
flag of superstitious servitude and false- 
hood, of retrogression and lack of reason, 
fear has no entrance. These believe be- 
cause they know, and to them the fast 
takes its place with the doctrine of evolu- 
tion, and they may say as did Faust : 

Let him look round him, standing without fear; 
This world speaks plain for one with ears to hear; 
He need not stray within the vast to be, * 
But clasp what he can feel and see. 



l0 %m 



